BALI, Indonesia — President Biden pledged support for a full investigation of the explosion that killed two people in Poland on Wednesday, but suggested to reporters that the missile that detonated probably had not been fired from Russia.
It was unclear from the president’s remarks whether he meant the missile was not likely to have been fired from inside Russia’s territorial borders, or not likely to have been fired by Russian forces in Ukraine or elsewhere.
Asked by a reporter whether the missile “was fired from Russia,” Mr. Biden replied, “There is preliminary information that contests that.”
“I don’t want to say that until we completely investigate,” he said. But “the trajectory” of the missile made it unlikely “that it was fired from Russia,” he added.
Mr. Biden and allies, including leaders from the wealthy Group of 7 nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, convened an emergency meeting to discuss the explosion on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit on the Indonesian island of Bali. In brief remarks afterward, Mr. Biden said the leaders had agreed to support Poland’s investigation into the explosion.
“I’m going to make sure we figure out exactly what happened,” Mr. Biden said. “And then we’re going to collectively figure out our next step and how to proceed.”
The president went on to criticize Russia’s latest round of missile attacks on Ukraine, which disrupted power supplies for millions of Ukrainians on Tuesday in one of the broadest aerial attacks since Moscow’s forces invaded in February.
“They’ve been totally unconscionable, what they’re doing. Totally unconscionable,” Mr. Biden said. “At the moment when the world came together at the G20 to urge de-escalation, Russia has chosen to escalate in Ukraine, while we’re meeting.”