Polish villagers cower after missile strikes random tragedy

Hours after a stray missile brought death from the war on their doorstep, the villagers of Przewodow, south-eastern Poland, struggled on Wednesday to adjust to the reality of a new and terrifying threat.

Many locals kept their children indoors while others assessed damage caused to local buildings by the explosion, which killed two people at a grain dryer 6km from the border with Ukraine.

“I’m terrified. People we knew very well have died,” said Joanna Magus, a teacher of Polish at the local primary school just 100 metres from the site of the explosion.

“It’s a very small community. “One of the men who died is my colleague.”

After a sleepless night, principal Ewa Byra decided to keep the school, situated some 300 metres from the blast site, open.

“I told the parents I see no grounds to close the school but kids haven’t shown up. It seems parents have kept them at home amid the heavy police presence.”

She was at a different school in a different community when the blast happened.

One of the victims was a father of an ex-pupil and the other, the husband of a cleaner at the school, Byra said.

She is worried about the psychological impact of the blast on her pupils.

“Since the start of the war we have been analysing the danger. It had quieted down recently, but here we are today,” she said. “It’s terrifying.”

It is as yet unclear who launched the missile, which US President Joe Biden said was probably not fired from Russia.

It exploded as Moscow unleashed a wave of missiles targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, attacks that Kyiv said were the heaviest in nearly nine months of war.

Russia said it had nothing to do with the blast.

If it were to be determined that Moscow was to blame for the blast, it could trigger Nato’s principle of collective defence known as Article 5, in which an attack on one of the Western alliance’s members is deemed an attack on all, starting deliberations on a potential military response.

In the early hours of Wednesday, Poland said it would likely invoke Nato’s Article 4, which is a formal call for consultations among allies in the face of a security threat.

Nato held an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the missile.

It’s a very small community. One of the men who died is my colleague