Events of the past 24 hours have shown just how delicate the situation could become on Ukraine’s borders with Nato countries including Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Moldova and Romania. Since the Russian invasion at the end of February, the big fear for the West’s most important military alliance is that hostilities could spill over into one of those countries, forcing the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to intervene and become embroiled in the conflict.

These fears have surfaced again after a Russian-made missile landed on the village of Przewodow a few kilometres inside the Polish border on Tuesday, killing two farmers. This immediately gave rise to frantic speculation that the missile could have been launched by Russia, something which could have led Poland to invoke Article 5 of the Nato treaty.