Owner of the farm struck by missile in the Polish village of Przewodow speaks exclusively to BNT

The owner of the farm in the missile-stiken Polish village of Przewodow, spoke exclusively to BNT. Federico Viola, whose farm employs 30 workers, said the two of his employees who died in the explosion, Bogdan and Bogoslaw, were excellent people and the loss was a huge tragedy to the community.

The two had been on site for grain loading and unloading, which took no more than two minutes, and it was that moment the missile hit the grain-drying plant. He expressed surprise that from so many farms and thousands of kilometres of farmland in the area, the missile had struck these particular silos.

"I'd like to think it was not intentional, that it was an accident, but it's so strange because there's a lot of land here, open fields. At that very moment, our two farmers were there to do a grain reload, an activity that took no more than a minute or two. It's really beyond belief," Viola said.

The missile incident in the village of Przewodow will not affect relations between Poland and Ukraine.

Gregorz Drevnik is the mayor of Dołhobyczów municipality, where village of Przewodow is located. He was also one of the first to arrive at the scene of the blast on Tuesday afternoon.

"I live close to the scene of the incident. After I heard the blasts, because there were 2 explosions, I decided to come to the place and check. I found huge destruction. You might think that one, two missiles can't destroy much, but the truth is that what I found was one big, 4-metre crater and rubble scattered about 100 metres away from it. The force of the explosion was enormous and the sight was horrific," he explained.

The mayor pointed out that the population in this part of eastern Poland has given reception to thousands of Ukrainian refugees since the war began in February and reception centres have been set up. At the beginning of the conflict, the population here had considered full evacuation, but once the front stabilized, they decided to stay.

Ukrainian military personnel were granted access to the site of the explosion in Poland

Today Ukraine gained access to the site of the missile that exploded in eastern Poland. Ukrainian diplomats and military specialists entered the area of the grain-drying plant in Przewodów shortly after 1 pm local time, accompanied by police. The country's deputy prime minister and defence minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, said the involvement of Ukrainian specialists in the investigation of the incident was very clearly specified and within the framework of international cooperation.

***

The explosion in Przewodów happened around 3:40 p.m. on Tuesday, November 15. Two people were killed - they were two men who worked at the grain-drying facility.