A plane carrying Robert Lewandowski and his Polish team mates was escorted by F-16 fighter jets on its way to the World Cup in Qatar after Tuesdays deadly missile strike

Polands national football team was escorted to theWorld Cupby two fighter jets.

CaptainRobert Lewandowskiand co were flown to Qatar flanked by the F-16s yesterday ahead of the tournaments opening match on Sunday.

The footage comes amid safety fears aftera missile strike in a Polish village on the Ukrainian borderkilled two men.

Following an emergency NATO meeting, secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said there was no indication it was the result of a deliberate attack from Vladimir PutinsRussia.

Polands president Andrzej Duda said a Ukrainian air defence missile likely caused the unfortunate accident - but Kyiv has denied responsibility.

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The F-16 fighter jets flanked the plane flying the Poland national team to Qatar

The military escort jockeyed the teams plane to the countrys border as it headed for the Middle East.

TheTwitteraccount for the national team posted: We were escorted to the southern border of Poland by F16 planes!

Thank you and greetings to the pilots!

The footballers were later pictured disembarking the plane at Hamad International Airport.

Ironically, the team - who failed to initially qualify for this years World Cup - were entered into a play-off after Russia was disqualified following its invasion ofUkraine.

Since the war began in February, Poland has aided neighbours Ukraine and its millions of refugees.

This was done both to ease its suffering and help guard against the conflict spilling into the rest of Europe.

This weeks missile strike brought the issue home and added to the long-suppressed sense of vulnerability in a country where the ravages of World War II are well remembered.

Now Polish citizens fear for their future, and political commentators warn that the strike should not be allowed to hurt relations with Ukraine, which have recently grown closer through Polands solidarity.

When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, millions of Polish citizens dropped what they were doing to help any way they could.

While Poland has a long history of conflict with Moscow.

Russia was one of the three powers that divided Poland in the 18th century and - jointly with Austria and Prussia - erased it from Europes maps for more than 100 years, brutally suppressing drives for freedom.

After World War II, Poland was an unwilling part of the East Bloc and remained under Moscows domination for over four decades, until it peacefully toppled the communist government.

The conflict has strengthened Polands ties with its NATO allies, especially with the U.S., which sent thousands of troops to southeast Poland, close to the Ukrainian border, as Poland became a conduit for weapons sent from the West to Ukraine.

The worlds humanitarian and medical efforts also pass through Poland.

Russias aggression has pushed Warsaw to increase the countrys defence budget and spend billions on weapons from the U.S. and South Korea.

President Duda has visited the site of the missile strike and talked to investigators.

There is a war across our border. Russia fired hundreds of missiles, Ukraine was defending itself. Nobody wanted to hurt anyone in Poland, Duda said.

This is our common tragedy.

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