The two innocent victims struck by a stray missile in Poland have been named as farm workers whose deaths have left their families distraught.
Bogusław Wos, 62, and Bogdan Ciupek, 60, were tragically killed on Tuesday at around 3.40 pm when an S-300 rocket hit the rural villafe of Przewodow close to the border with Ukraine in eastern Poland, amid the neighbouring country's ongoing war with unvading Russia.
Mr Wos had worked as a foreman at a grain-processing plant for 40 years and lived with his wife and elderly mother-in-law whom he cared for. He had two grown-up children who live in Krakow.
Mr Ciupek lived in the nearby village of Setniki and worked as a tractor driver.
The missile happened to hit the only agricultural building in an expanse of open fields, killing the two men instantly, according to local mayor, Grzegorz Drewnik.
It’s understood that Ciupek had just arrived at the warehouse driving a tractor full of grain as Wos waited to unload it when the missile struck.
A neighbour told local media: "We all know each other, it's not a big town. We have never experienced such a tragedy. They were good people."
Another neighbour told interia.pl: "Boguslaw went to work as usual and at around 4pm his wife realised that something bad had happened.
"Some of the neighbours, out of compassion and curiosity, wanted to visit his wife but she was in a frenzy, she did not want to talk, she looked into the distance and cried. She was in terrible shock."
Mayor Mr Drewnik said to the Washington Post: "For residents, the anxiety of the first days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has now returned. We had been in a stressful situation since the beginning of the war — we had a lot of refugees at first. But we got used to it.”
The blast happened near the rural eastern Polish village, about four miles west of the Ukrainian border, and came around the same time that Russia launched its biggest wave of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in more than a month.
Many feared the missile could have been fired by Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces, sparking a confrontation between a NATO country and Russia that could have spiralled into World War 3.
But the leaders of Poland and NATO say the missile was likely fired by Ukrainian forces, but that the ultimate blame still lies with Russia as Ukrainian forces were defending their country against Kremlin strikes.
Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, said the Polish missile incident demonstrates that the war in Ukraine “which is President Vladimir Putin ’s responsibility – continues to create dangerous situations”.
He continued: "[The missile was] likely caused by Ukraine but not Ukraine’s fault. Let me be clear, this is not Ukraine’s fault. Russia bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine."
