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Could World War Three be started by an accident? A missile accidentally hit a Polish village close to the Ukrainian border on Tuesday, and some feared it could start a war.
On Tuesday, a Russian missile hit a Polish village. The news worried many people, who thought that Russia was trying to attack Poland. Most people agree that Russia invading Poland would start a World War.
Russia has been making threats of nuclear war for months now. It has been nine months since the superpower invaded Ukraine.
When a Russian missile fell in Poland, many thought that it would trigger a war. Poland is in Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), a group of countries who are allies who have a treaty to help defend each other. The treaty says that if one of the countries in the group is attacked, the others have to defend it.
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This means that if Russia attacked Poland, all of the other Nato countries could go to war with Russia.
The missile turned out to be an accident. It is thought to have been fired by the Ukrainian army to defend themselves against Russia.
But there are many examples from history of wars being started because of a small accident. For example, you could learn about Franz Ferdinand, who was killed because his driver took a wrong turn. This led to the World War One.
But some people say we do not need to worry. We have learned from history and now organisations such as Nato have put some security measures in place to make sure that we have dialogue before we start using weapons.
Could World War Three be started by an accident?
Yes! History shows us that there are many examples of wars started by mistake. This means that it could happen again.
No! We have learned from the past and will not make the same mistakes again. This is why groups like Nato, which have lots of experts, exist.