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U.S. President Joe Biden told allies that a missile that killed two people in Poland was a Ukrainian air defence missile, a NATO source said on Wednesday.

Earlier, Biden said publicly that the missile was unlikely to have been fired from Russia. If confirmed, that would likely alleviate concern that the first deadly incident in a NATO country since the war in Ukraine began might lead to escalation, Reuters reported.

NATO ambassadors were due to hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss Tuesday's explosion at a grain dryer in eastern Poland near the Ukrainian border, which occurred while Russia was firing scores of missiles at cities across Ukraine.

Kyiv says it shot down most of the incoming Russian missiles with its own air defence missiles. Ukraine's Volyn region, just across the border from Poland, was one of the many Ukraine says was targeted by Russia's attacks.

The Russian Defence Ministry said none of its missiles struck closer than 35 km (20 miles) from the Polish border, and that photos of the wreckage showed elements of a Ukrainian S-300 air defence missile.

Asked whether it was too early to say if the missile was fired from Russia, Biden said: "There is preliminary information that contests that. I don't want to say that until we completely investigate it, but it is unlikely in the lines of the trajectory that it was fired from Russia, but we’ll see."