Border line Yavoriv strike is unnerving – but Russia unlikely to attack Poland

Russia’s deadly multiple missile strike last Sunday on Ukraine’s military base in Yavoriv, less than 25km from the Polish border, was clearly designed to send a message.

- Dan Sabbagh

Not only can Russian forces strike the western limits of Ukraine, killing at least 35 people near where western arms will be crossing into the country, but the Kremlin does not care if US or other volunteer fighters were training there.

A day earlier, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, had said its military would treat arms shipments to Ukraine from Nato countries as “legitimate targets”.

The facility, well known as a location where Nato forces trained Ukrainians in years before the war began, is near the most direct route between Rzeszow airport, where western arms are being flown in, and the city of Lviv.

It is a place where foreign volunteers are said to have congregated as they start training with Ukraine’s armed forces. But even if the base is not used or heavily used for either purpose, it is a site long viewed with suspicion by Russia.