There’s been no shortage of hand-wringing the past six years over the dangers of misinformation. Yet it doesn’t get more dangerous than misinformation with the potential to lead to a third world war, or possibly even a nuclear exchange.

That’s what happened Tuesday afternoon, Eastern time, when in the process of fending off a flurry of Russian missiles being launched at Ukrainian infrastructure, a Ukrainian defense missile killed two people inside Poland, a NATO member state. Mainstream press outlets and major figures quickly attributed the strike to Russia, and until the record was corrected by the Polish and US governments, public discourse was replete with calls for escalation against Moscow.

The whole saga was a firsthand reminder of two things: that the most dangerous and influential misinformation is often spread not from random bots or even little-known fake news outlets, but from mainstream press outlets, government officials, and other sources usually considered “authoritative” and beyond reproach; and that the war in Ukraine carries with it the risk of accidents and misunderstandings leading to a potentially catastrophic wider war.