It is a strange thing to travel toward a war zone. As one drives in the direction of Ukraine, all is mundane in eastern Poland: tidy farms, prosperous towns, terrific highways, kids walking to school. It’s a reassuringly normal pattern.

Then, a few kilometres from the border in a small city called Přemysl which has become one of the main humanitarian centres for those fleeing Putin’s war on Ukraine, I started to spot changes in the pattern.