The recent incident in which a Ukrainian anti-missile rocket aimed at an incoming Russian rocket volley fell into the rural eastern Polish village of Przewodów, killing two farmers, brought home with renewed urgency the fact that the war in Ukraine can at any time escalate into a wider conflict, especially if Putin decides to target NATO territory along the flank.

The response from the alliance was swift, with Polish President Andrzej Duda reaching out to President Joe Biden and other critical leaders for consultation as the crisis unfolded. The very nature of the incident, which for a brief period of time until it was determined not to be a Russian attack on Poland, raised the prospect that NATO’s Article V could be invoked.

On that day, Ukraine was subjected to the most brutal Russian attack against civilian infrastructure to date, with around one hundred missiles fired at critical infrastructure targets. (The Ukrainian anti-missile rocket that strayed into Poland was fired to defend a critical interconnector linking the Polish and Ukrainian power grids.) Estimates put the damage Russia has inflicted on Ukraine at over 50% of the country’s critical infrastructure, and counting.