Poland Braces for Russian Border Attack09/28 06:32

   

   DOROHUSK, Poland (AP) -- Three times in one day, phones lit up across this 
Polish border community with a warning: A drone or a missile could cross from 
https://apnews.com/hub/ukraine, and residents should stay vigilant in case they 
might need to take cover.

   Above the village of Dorohusk in eastern Poland, vapor trails cut across the 
pale blue sky and military helicopters rumbled overhead. Just 2 kilometers 
(1.24 miles) away, traffic at the border crossing into Ukraine was suspended 
three times, and staff were even evacuated once.

   The alerts and disruptions on Thursday came as The Associated Press was 
visiting the village. They reflected a new reality along Poland's eastern 
frontier, where the https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine -- now 4 1/2 years 
old -- has felt increasingly close.

   Russia isn't at war with Poland, but over the past few years European 
leaders say it's mounted a series of so-called hybrid attacks to pressure to 
pressure adversaries in the West and NATO that include sabotage, disinformation 
and cyberattacks. Poland is worried that the drones or missiles strikes could 
spill over from Ukraine, whether by accident or as part of a Russian strategy 
of ambiguous attacks.

   The anxiety intensified after 
https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-train-drone-strike-border-diplomats-43e00d1e6
f069230f4f2e58520349264 on the Ukrainian side of the Dorohusk-Yahodyn crossing 
in the early hours of Sept. 13. The explosions could clearly be heard in 
Dorohusk.

   "There is new restlessness and fear because you could hear those explosions 
very well on that night in our village," said Wojciech Sawa, the Dorohusk 
mayor. "We had never had something like that before. This was the first time 
the sirens wailed."

   Poland is preparing for a more serious Russian hybrid attack 

   Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk 
https://apnews.com/article/poland-russia-ukraine-nato-baltics-drones-rockets-818
fe48227ee28d60fe86d8fe6485f5c on Sept. 17 that Russia was planning hybrid 
strikes with drones or rockets on European countries supporting Ukraine, among 
them https://apnews.com/hub/poland, and regions bordering Ukraine would be 
especially vulnerable in the coming months. Other European leaders and 
intelligence services 
https://apnews.com/article/nato-russia-ukraine-war-putin-6c7f62a5d388d0a9f378ea1
44cb25550 that Russia is likely to step up its hybrid campaign.

   In Dorohusk, people have lived in the shadow of the war for years. They 
watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ushry0WydCk 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 kilometers (56 
miles) 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.

   Kids in border regions have to evacuate when sirens warn of air threat 

   Jarosaw Wjcicki, the Dorohusk school's director, said staff, including 
the school psychologist, now discuss with students "practically every day" how 
to stay safe.

   The school had to be evacuated once so far and Wjcicki showed the two rooms 
in the basement of the school building where the kids took cover. Windows had 
been boarded up to avoid glass shards hurting anyone in case of an explosion.

   "The older children had no problem at all, without showing any particular 
emotion," the director said. "You could see a little fear among the younger 
children, but they were well looked after by their teachers."

   Wjcicki is responsible for the safety of hundreds of children who travel 
from nearby villages to attend school in Dorohusk, and his voice wavered as he 
described the enormity of the task.

   Poland's Defense Minister Wadysaw Kosiniak-Kamysz visited the 
Dorohusk-Yahodyn border crossing on Sept. 22 and announced new air defense 
elements were being brought to the border region. He added that Patriot 
batteries were deployed in the two Polish regions bordering Ukraine, including 
the one where Dorohusk is located.

   More work needs to be done on civil preparedness 

   While the government's warnings are stark, even communities closest to 
Ukraine are still catching up on civil defense preparedness.

   "We are at the beginning of the process of building civil resilience and the 
resilience of the state to threats," said Mirosaw Sokal, head of resident 
safety for the city of Lublin, 90 km west of Dorohusk. "We have to remember 
that over the past 40 years we thought we would be living in peace."

   He said, given the lack of more solid infrastructure, Poles should respect 
one minimal rule when there's an air threat: get inside and put two walls 
between them and any window.

   Sawa, the Dorohusk mayor, said villagers typically live in individual homes 
with basements and that is the obvious place to hide in case of air threats. 
"If I don't have a basement myself, my neighbor likely does," he said.

   But people on the streets of Dorohusk seemed more confused about their 
options in case of a real attack.

   "For now, I sleep well at night, so I don't really hear it," said Irena 
Popek, a woman in her 80s. If planes are coming, she said, her basement was not 
an option as it was flooded. "I simply have nowhere to hide, and that's it."

   Renata Pastuszo, a local shop employee, said she continued working through 
the recent siren alarm because it's better to keep a positive spirit in front 
of the Russian threat.

   Krzysztof Rulka, another resident, complained that alerts were now coming 
too often, leaving people confused about their meaning.

   "If someone told me that a drone was going to explode in the center of 
Dorohusk, then I would know what to do," he said. "But this kind of confusion 
-- there's an air attack somewhere in Ukraine -- well, what am I supposed to do 
now? Run to Germany?"