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Donald Trump, who has mounted relentless attacks on the integrity of US voting since his 2020 election defeat, has launched a bid to regain the presidency in 2024, aiming to pre-empt potential Republican rivals.

Trump, seeking a potential rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden, made his announcement at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida a week after midterm elections in which Republicans failed to win as many seats in Congress as they had hoped.

In a speech broadcast live on US television, Trump spoke to hundreds of supporters in a ballroom decorated with several chandeliers and lined with dozens of American flags.

"In order to make America great again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States," Trump said to a cheering phone-waving crowd of donors and longtime supporters.

Earlier in the day, aides filed paperwork with the US Federal Election Commission setting up a committee called "Donald J. Trump for President 2024."

There is a long road ahead before the Republican nominee is formally selected in the summer of 2024, with the first state-level contests more than a year away.

Trump's announcement comes earlier than usual even in a country known for protracted presidential campaigns and signals his interest in discouraging other possible contenders such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis or his own former vice president, Mike Pence, from making a bid for the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nomination.

DeSantis handily won re-election as governor during the midterms. Pence, while promoting his new book, has sought to distance himself from Trump. Other potential Republican presidential hopefuls include Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Trump played an active role in the midterms, recruiting and promoting candidates who echoed his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud.

But many of his candidates in key battleground states lost, prompting some prominent Republicans to openly blame him for promoting weak candidates who derailed the party's hopes of taking control of the Senate.

Control of the House of Representatives remains up in the air, but Republicans are on track to win a razor-thin majority.

Trump will seek his party's nomination even as he faces trouble on several fronts, including a criminal investigation into his possession of government documents taken when he left office as well as a congressional subpoena related to his role in the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack by his supporters. Trump has called the various investigations he faces politically motivated and has denied wrongdoing.

Trump, 76, is seeking to become only the second U.S. president in history to serve non-consecutive terms, after Grover Cleveland, whose second stint ended in 1897.

Biden, 79, said last week he intends to run for re-election and will likely make a final decision by early next year.

In an Edison Research exit poll, seven out of 10 midterm voters expressed the view that Biden, who remains deeply unpopular, should not run again. In the same poll, six of 10 respondents said they had an unfavorable opinion of Trump.

© RAW 2022

NATO ambassadors will meet on Wednesday at the request of Poland on the basis of the alliance's Article 4, two European diplomats have told Reuters, after an explosion in Poland close to the Ukrainian border reportedly caused by a stray Russian missile.

According to article 4 of the alliance's founding treaty, members can raise any issue of concern, especially related to the security of a member country.

One of the diplomats said the alliance would act cautiously and needed time to verify how exactly the incident happened.

The United States and Western allies say they are investigating but can not confirm reports the blast in Poland resulted from stray Russian missiles - a claim Russia's defence ministry has denied.

Two people were killed in the explosion in Przewodow, a village in eastern Poland about 12 kilometres from the border with Ukraine, firefighters said.

The Associated Press earlier cited a senior US intelligence official as saying the blast was due to Russian missiles crossing into Poland.

Polish Radio ZET attributed the explosion to two stray missiles, without giving more details.

Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are committed to collective defence, so a Russian strike on Poland could risk widening the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which began with Moscow's invasion in February.

But in Washington, the Pentagon, White House and US State Department said they could not corroborate the report and were working with the Polish government to gather more information.

The State Department said the report was "incredibly concerning".

Germany and Canada said they were monitoring the situation and Norway said it was seeking details.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian missiles hit Poland in a "significant escalation" of the conflict.

He did not provide evidence of the strikes.

Russia's defence ministry denied Russian missiles hit Polish territory, describing reports as "a deliberate provocation aimed at escalating the situation".

It added in a statement: "No strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border were made by Russian means of destruction."

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

Russia was pounding cities across Ukraine with missiles on Tuesday in attacks Kyiv said were the heaviest wave of missile strikes in almost nine months of war.

Some hit Lviv, which is less than 80km from the border with Poland.

Fabrice Pothier, former head of policy planning in the NATO secretary-general's office, told Sky TV that it was too early to say whether the possible strike was intentional or accidental.

But the events were enough to trigger NATO treaty articles under which Poland would call a NATO meeting "to consult each other, to assess the threat and to take concrete action", Pothier said.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called an urgent meeting of a government committee for national security and defence affairs, government spokesman Piotr Muller said on Twitter.

Latvian Deputy Prime Minister Artis Pabriks said the situation was "unacceptable" and it could lead to NATO providing more anti-aircraft defences to Poland and Ukraine, a view Pothier endorsed.

"Every inch of #NATO territory must be defended!," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Twitter.

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said, according to BNS newswire: "We are discussing with our allies how to respond to what happened jointly and decisively."

© AP 2022

NATO member Poland says a Russian-made rocket killed two people in eastern Poland near Ukraine and has summoned its ambassador to Warsaw to explain after Moscow denied it was responsible.

The Polish foreign ministry said the rocket fell on Tuesday afternoon on Przewodow, a village in eastern Poland about six kilometres from the border with Ukraine, killing two.

Media reports said the strike hit a grain-drying facility.

The statement was Poland's most detailed comment thus far on the explosion.

The United States and Western allies had said they were investigating but could not confirm a report that stray Russian missiles hit the village.

Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are committed to collective defence, so a Russian strike on Poland could risk widening the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which began with Moscow's invasion in February.

A NATO official said the alliance was looking into the report and closely co-ordinating with Poland.

Poland was increasing the readiness of some military units and determining whether to request consultations with allies under Article 4 of the NATO treaty, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieck said.

US President Joe Biden told Polish President Andrzej Duda in a call that Washington has an "ironclad commitment to NATO" and will support Poland's investigation, the White House said.

The Associated Press earlier cited a senior US intelligence official as saying the blast was due to Russian missiles having crossed into Poland.

But in Washington, the Pentagon, White House and US State Department said they could not corroborate the report and were working with the Polish government to gather more information.

The State Department said the report was "incredibly concerning".

Germany and Canada said they were monitoring the situation and the European Union, the Netherlands and Norway said they were seeking more details.

French President Emmanuel Macron ordered a verification effort, while Britain was "urgently" looking into the report.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian missiles hit Poland in a "significant escalation" of the conflict.

He did not provide evidence.

Russia's defence ministry denied Russian missiles hit Polish territory, describing reports as "a deliberate provocation aimed at escalating the situation".

It added in a statement: "No strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border were made by Russian means of destruction."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had no information on an explosion in Poland.

Russia was pounding cities across Ukraine with missiles on Tuesday, in attacks Kyiv said were the heaviest wave of missile strikes in almost nine months of war.

Some hit Lviv, which is less than 80km from the border with Poland.

Fabrice Pothier, former head of policy planning in the NATO secretary-general's office, told Sky TV that the events were enough to trigger NATO's Article 4.

That would entail Poland calling a NATO meeting "to consult each other, to assess the threat and to take concrete action", Pothier said.

NATO ambassadors were due to hold a regular weekly meeting on Wednesday.

Latvian Deputy Prime Minister Artis Pabriks said the situation was "unacceptable" and it could lead to NATO providing more anti-aircraft defences to Poland and Ukraine, a view Pothier endorsed.

"Every inch of #NATO territory must be defended!," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Twitter.

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said, according to BNS newswire: "We are discussing with our allies how to respond to what happened jointly and decisively."

© AP 2022