What the Poland missile incident reveals about Russia – and Nato

A missile strike, deliberate or accidental, on one of Ukraine’s Nato-member neighbours is one of the scenarios Ukraine’s Western allies have been most afraid of from the start, writes Mary Dejevsky

This is the first such incident – at least, the first such incident reported – in nearly nine months of hostilities (EPA)

This was an accident, or an incident, waiting to happen. The missile that appears to have killed two people on a farm just inside Poland could have ignited World War Three. In the event, so far at least, wiser counsels have prevailed. And it is worth observing that just sometimes – although too rarely – the scale of the danger draws a proportionately cautious response.

It was, of course, pure chance that so many national leaders were physically in the same place at the time, and that something akin to a global security summit could be assembled at once. It was fortunate, too, perhaps, that none of those leaders were among those shouting from the sidelines that force, or strength, “is the only language Russia understands”.

Volodymyr Zelensky had good reason for his fury: the strike came amid a blizzard of missile attacks that knocked out nearly half of Ukraine’s power and appeared to be Russia’s hostile response to the 10-point peace plan the Ukrainian president had presented only hours earlier. Nor is it hard to grasp his instinctive blaming of Russia, or his barely disguised hope that such an incident might bring Nato formally – rather than informally – into this war.