VernonReporting from Wroclaw at Polandbbc
Ordinary Poles sign up on military training day in anticipation of military attacks
At a military training ground near Lokla, ordinary Poles line up waiting to be handed over to guns and teach them how to film. “When the round is loaded, the weapon is ready to fire,” he said, citing his face in camouflage paint.
Old and young, men and women, parents and children, came here for all reasons. This is to learn how to survive an armed attack.
This Saturday morning program, called “Train with the Army,” also turns around the shooting range to teach civilians how to hand-to-hand combat, first aid and wear gas masks.
“It’s dangerous right now. You need to be prepared,” says Captain Adam Sieriki, the project’s coordinator. “There is a military threat from Russia and we are prepared for this.”
Capt Sielicki says the program is oversubscribed and the Polish government currently has plans to expand it to ensure that all adult men in the country are trained. Poland, which shares its border with both Russia and Ukraine, says it will spend almost 5% of its GDP this year on NATO’s highest defense.
Military training programmes are overregistered and the Polish government plans to expand it to train all adult men in the country
Last week, Prime Minister Donald Tass said Poland was aiming to build “the most powerful army in the region.” Warsaw purchases planes, ships, artillery and missiles from the United States, Sweden, South Korea and other countries.
Darius is one of those taking part in Lokla’s Saturday course and says that if Poland is attacked, he will be the “very first” to volunteer. “History has taught us that we must be prepared to protect ourselves. We cannot rely on others. Today, alliances exist, and tomorrow they are broken.”
When he removes the gas mask, Bartek says he thinks most poles are “ready to take weapons if attacked and defend the “country.”
Agata is present with friends. She says the Donald Trump election made people even more worried. “He wants to pull out [of Europe]. So we feel even safer. If we are not ready and Russia attacks us, we will simply become their prisoners. ”
Agata says she feels more vulnerable after the US election
Statements by Donald Trump and his administration members have sparked deep concern among Warsaw officials. During a visit to the Polish capital in February, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegses said Europe should not assume that the presence of US forces on the continent is “forever.”
The US currently has 10,000 troops in Poland, but Washington announced last month that it will be breaking out of a major military base in Luzso city in eastern Poland. Authorities say troops will be reassigned within Poland, but the move has sparked even more uncertainty at home.
Donald Trump’s apparent hostility towards Ukrainian President Volodimia Zelensky, and his warm words to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, have only been added to his worries.
Poland is expected to sign a defence agreement with France in the coming days, with another agreement with the UK in the pipeline. Warsaw moves further, building a relationship with Washington from its historically strong military relationships. There is also a story that Poland is being brought under the French military’s “nuclear umbrella.”
“I think [Trump] “We pushed us to think more creatively about our safety. “I don’t think the US can afford to lose Poland, but we need to think about other options and develop our own capabilities,” said Tomasz Szatkowski, the permanent representative of Poland and the permanent defence advisor to NATO and the presidential advisor.
“If Russians continue to have positive intentions towards Europe, we will be the first — gatekeeper,” Szatkowski said. He attributes Poland’s rapid military accumulation to “first of all, not just his geopolitical circumstances, but historic experiences.”
Wanda Trazzik Stoska was 12 years old when Russia invaded Poland
The painful legacy of Russian occupation can be felt everywhere here.
Wanda Trezzik Stoleska, 98, at a state-run nursing home in Warsaw, recalls the last Russian army invaded.
“In 1939, I was 12. I remember my dad being very worried. [the Russians]”Wander recalls, “We knew Russia had attacked us, they took advantage of the fact that the Germans exposed us.”
On the shelf are photos of Wanda as a fighter who wielded a machine gun during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. After pushing the Germans back in the dying days of World War II, the Soviet Union established a pro-Moscow regime in Poland, which ruled the country until 1989.
Currently, approximately 216,000 soldiers and women make up the Polish army. The government says it intends to increase it to 500,000 people, including reserves.
Wanda (left), about 15 years old, fighting in Polish resistance during the Warsaw uprising in 1944.
I ask Wanda if he thinks it’s a good thing that Poland is building an army. “Of course, yes. Russia writes this attack in its history. I’m not talking about people, but the authorities are always like that,” she sighs. “It’s better to be an armed country than to wait for something to happen, because I am a soldier who remembers weapons are the most important thing.”
Eighty years after the end of World War II, Poles once again have nervous attention to their neighbors. In warehouses in southern Poland, popular demand caused a company to build mock-ups of bomb shelters.
“These shelters are primarily designed to protect against nuclear bombs, as well as against armed attacks,” says Janus Janzi, the boss of the Shelter Polo, who showed me around the steel bunker. “People are building these shelters just because they don’t know what to expect for tomorrow.”
Janusz says he received dozens of inquiries a week from Paul, who is about to buy a bomb shelter
Janus says demand for shelters has skyrocketed since Donald Trump took office. “We used to call a few times a month. Now we have dozens of calls a week,” he says. “My clients are most afraid of Russia.
But if those fears come to life, is Paul ready to defend his country? A recent poll found only 10.7% of adults said they would join the Army as a volunteer during the war, and the third one said they would run away.
On a sunny gynecological afternoon, I ask Polish students if they are ready to defend their country if they are attacked. Most people say they don’t. “The war is very close, but it feels quite far away,” says medical student Marcel. “But if Russia attacks, I think I’ll run.”
“I’m probably the first to escape this country,” says Simon, another student. “I haven’t seen much of what is worth dying here.”
Additional Reports by Aleksandra Stefanowicz
