For residents of Dorohusk, a village in eastern Poland on the border with Ukraine, the war came one step closer to home two weeks ago when Russian drones exploded only a few kilometres away, even if still on the Ukrainian side of the border. According to Associated Press three times in one day, phones lit up across this Polish border community with a warning: A drone or a missile could cross from Ukraine, and residents would have to take cover. The alerts and disruptions on Thursday reflect a new reality along Poland's eastern frontier, where the war in Ukraine has felt uncomfortably close.
The anxiety intensified after two Russian drones exploded on the Ukrainian side of the Dorohusk-Yahodyn crossing in the early hours of Sept. 13. The explosions could clearly be heard in the Polish village.
Near Dorohusk, serpentine vapour trails hung in the pale blue sky, possibly left by NATO jets monitoring Polish airspace as Russia launched attacks on western Ukraine. Military helicopters rumbled overhead. The Dorohusk-Yahodyn border crossing, about 2 kilometres away on the frontier with Ukraine, was evacuated for roughly half an hour around midday because of the nearby air attack. Border procedures were suspended twice more on that day.
In Dorohusk, people have lived in the shadow of the war for years. They watched Ukrainian refugees flee across the frontier in the early days of Russia’s 2022 invasion and, this July, had a Russian missile pass through airspace in eastern Poland before crashing some 90 km inside the country. But the recent drone attacks and the Polish government's efforts to prepare the population for further serious incidents have brought a new sense of apprehension – and also confusion – among locals. Children in border regions have to evacuate when syrens notify an air threat.
Source: Kanal13
