Poland: Missile was "probably an accident" from Ukraine 5:23
(CNN Spanish) --
Since the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, on February 24, Poland has played an important role in the largest conflict in Europe since World War II: it has received more refugees than anyone else, functioning as a buffer zone between the fighting and the rest of Europe, and militarily assisted Kyiv, as part of NATO's support strategy.
The cause seems to lie in its geographical position: Poland shares a 498-kilometer border with Ukraine, 375 kilometers with Belarus—Moscow's most staunch ally—and 209 kilometers with Russia, around the Kaliningrad enclave.
Even so, he would like it, he does not have the possibility to stay on the sidelines.
What happened in Poland with the missile that fell?
Why can he increase tensions with NATO?
But there are also clues in its recent history: after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Poland left behind the communist system and its position in Moscow's sphere of influence to integrate as quickly as possible with Western Europe, joining NATO. and in the European Union.
Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, has also tried in recent years to move closer to Western Europe and progressively leave Russia's sphere of influence, and this movement has been one of the main causes of the war.
Polish servicemen drive a Leopard tank during exercises on September 2022 in Nowa Deba, Poland.
(Credit: Omar Marques/Getty Images)
But what exactly is the role that Poland has had in the war?
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The war reaches Polish territory
The fall this Tuesday of a missile in Polish territory, which caused the death of two people, has just further expanded the country's role in the war, although it does not participate in the fighting or seek an open conflict with Russia.
The origin of the missile and the circumstances of the event are not entirely clear, but the president of Poland, Andrzej Duda, said Wednesday that there is "no indication" that it was an "intentional attack."
The main hypothesis, according to Duda, is that it is an S-300 air defense missile.
And NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also indicated that it was "most likely" an S-300 fired by Ukraine on Tuesday, mistakenly landing on Polish territory.
In recent days, Russia has fired close to 100 cruise missiles at targets in Ukraine, and Ukrainian air defenses, including S-300 systems, have attempted to counter this offensive.
Did a miscalculation cause a Ukrainian missile to fall on Poland?
1:16
Poland, Ukrainian refugee center
Since the first day of the war, the daily reality of Poland has been shaken by the massive arrival of Ukrainian refugees, through its 498 kilometers of border.
According to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Acnur), a total of 12,485,047 Ukrainians crossed the different borders of the country after the start of the war (many returned to their homes in the following months).
Most of these Ukrainians, 7,583,850 in total, crossed into Poland, followed by 1,746,421 who went to Hungary and 1,525,677 who arrived in Romania, among other initial destinations.
Also, 2,869,100 Ukrainians crossed the border into Russia, as Russian troops occupied different cities and amid reports of forced transfers.
Regardless of where they crossed the border, the Ukrainian refugees were then distributed throughout Europe.
Of the total 7,841,359 currently registered by UNHCR (i.e. the total number of people who crossed minus the number who later returned to Ukraine), 1,497,849 are settled in Poland under temporary protection as refugees, more than anywhere else. country (next on the list is Germany, which received 1,019,789 Ukrainian refugees).
Ukrainian refugees at the border with Poland.
The geopolitical position of Poland
Poland lies in Eastern Europe, between Germany and Russia, and right on the Great European Plain that has allowed for fluid migrations between east and west, a situation that has subjected it to centuries of foreign domination.
The country was part of different empires - among them the Russian one - until 1918, then divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II, until it became the People's Republic of Poland, a communist state under the shadow of Moscow. , during the Cold War.
As the USSR began to disintegrate, Poland regained full independence and became a democratic republic in 1989.
But after a long history of Russian domination, this separation process did not stop there: Poland joined NATO, formed precisely to counter the USSR, in 1999, and also in the European Union in 2004.
This is how the Ukrainian-Mexican supports emergency work in Poland 2:11
When war broke out between Ukraine and Russia, Poland, whose location between Russia and the rest of Europe has put it at the center of NATO aid to Ukraine, also became one of Ukraine's most public allies.
In fact, before the war Ukraine was already a major buyer of Polish arms.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a
think tank
that studies arms transfers globally, Ukraine was Poland's second largest arms buyer in 2019, behind the United States.
The Polish parliament, the Sejm, was one of the first to condemn the Russian invasion, and immediately afterward Poland stepped up its arms shipments, including more than 200 tanks (because of their common past, Poland and Ukraine have vast amounts of weapons of easily assimilated Soviet origin), and lent its territory for the training of Ukrainian troops by NATO.
Why did Russia attack and invade Ukraine?
What are the reasons and origin of the conflict?
In addition, in March the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, visited Kyiv together with the Prime Ministers of Slovenia and the Czech Republic, and met with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
"We are here to admire your fight against such a cruel aggressor. This invasion has to stop," Morawiecki said.
"We will never leave you alone. We will be with you, because we know that you are fighting not only for your homes, your freedom and your security, but also for ours," he added.
That same month, Poland even offered to hand over its Mig-29 fighters to Ukraine to deal with Russia, but the proposal was ultimately rejected by the United States in an attempt not to escalate the conflict.
Poland