How regular columns prepare for a Russian invasion

On a military training land near the city of Wroclaw, the regular columns line up, waiting for guns to be delivered and how to shoot. “Once the tour is loaded, the weapon is ready for shooting,” the coach, a Polish soldier, barks, stained with a reputable paint.

Young and adults, men and women, parents and children, they all came here for one reason: learn how to survive in an armed attack.

In addition to the shooting scope, this Saturday morning program knows this “Traine with the Army”, civilian fighting, first aid, and how to put a gas mask.

“The times are now dangerous, we need to be ready,” says Captain Adam Silick. “We have a military threat from Russia, and we are preparing for this.”

Captain Seleke says that the program is exaggerated, and that the Polish government now has plans to expand it until every great male in the country receives training. Poland, who shares the border with Russia and Ukraine, says it will spend nearly 5 % of the GDP of defense this year, which is the highest in NATO.

Last week, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that Poland was aiming to build “the most powerful army in the region.” Warsaw was in a state of spending, buying aircraft, ships, artillery and missile systems from the United States, Sweden and South Korea, among others.

Dariusz is one of those who attended the Saturday cycle in Wroclaw, and says it will be “very first” to volunteer if Poland is attacked. “History has learned that we must be ready to defend ourselves on our own. We cannot rely on anyone else. Today’s alliances exist, and a broken tomorrow.”

While it removes gas mask, Partik says he believes that most of the columns “will take weapons” if they are attacked “, and be ready to defend the country.

Agata attends with a friend. She says that the election of Donald Trump made people more anxious. “He wants to withdraw (from Europe). That is why we feel less safe. If we are not ready and attack Russia, we will simply become their prisoners.”

Donald Trump’s data and members of his administration caused deep concern among Warsaw officials. During a visit to the Polish capital in February, US Defense Secretary Beit Higseth said that Europe should not assume that the presence of American forces on the continent “will continue forever.”

The United States currently includes 10,000 soldiers stationed in Poland, but Washington announced last month that it was coming out of a major military base in the city of Rzeszow in eastern Poland. Officials say that the forces will be re -published inside Poland, but this step caused more uncomfortable in the country.

Donald Trump’s clear hostility towards Ukrainian President Folodimir Zelinsky, and the warm words of Russia Vladimir Putin only added to anxiety.

Poland is scheduled to sign a defense agreement with France in the coming days, and another agreement with the United Kingdom in the pipeline – other movements by Warsaw to move away from its historically strong military relations with Washington. There is also a talk about bringing Poland under the “nuclear umbrella” of the French army.

“I think (Trump) has certainly pressured thinking more creatively in our security,” says Tomasz Szatkowski, Poland’s permanent actor to NATO and the presidential advisor in the defense. “I think the United States cannot lose Poland, because that will be a sign … that you cannot rely on the United States. However, we have to think about other options and develop our own capabilities.”

“If the Russians continue their aggressive intentions towards Europe, we will be the first – the gate guard,” says Mr. Szatkowski. It is attributed to Poland’s rapid accumulation of “first and foremost, the geopolitical situation, but also the experience of history.”

The painful legacy of the Russian occupation can be felt everywhere here.

At a governmental care house in Warsaw, Wanda Torchk Skyca, 98 years old, remembers the last time that Russian forces invaded-in 1939, when an agreement between Stalin and Hitler led to Poland’s sculpture between the USSR and Nazi Germany.

“In 1939, I was 12 years old. I remember that my father was very concerned about (the Russians),” we knew that Russia attacked us, benefited from the fact that the Germans had revealed to us. “

On the shelf, there is a picture of Wanda as a fighter, with a brush rifle during the Warsaw uprising in 1944, when he fought the Polish underground the German army amid the ruins of the city. After pushing the Germans during the days of death in World War II, the Soviet Union installed a pro -Moscow system in Poland, which ruled the country until 1989.

Currently, about 216,000 soldiers and women are the Polish armed forces. The government says it intends to increase this to half a million, including reserve soldiers-which will give the second largest army in NATO after the United States.

Ask Wanda if she believed it is good to build Poland her army. “Of course, yes. Russia has this aggression written in its history. I am not talking about people, but the authorities are always like this,” sighed. “It is better to be a good armed state than waiting for something. Because I remember the weapons is the most important thing.”

Eighty years after the end of World War II, the columns again look to their neighbors nervously. In a warehouse in southern Poland, through popular demand, one company built a bombs model.

“These shelters are primarily designed to protect from the nuclear bomb, but also against armed attacks,” says Yanos Jancuzi, president of ELLLLETERPRO, who appears around the solid warehouse, with two brackets and the ventilation system. “People simply build these shelters because they do not know what to expect tomorrow.”

Yanos says that the demand for his shelters has risen since Donald Trump took office. “It was just a few phone calls per month. There are now dozens a week,” “my client is afraid of Russia. They are concerned that NATO will not come to defend Poland. “

But are columns ready to defend the country if these fears become a reality? A recent poll found that only 10.7 % of adults said they would join the army as volunteers in the event of war, and a third said they would escape.

In the sunny afternoon in Wroclaw, I ask the Polish students if they are ready to defend their country if they were attacked. Most of them say they will not do it. “The war is very close, but it feels very far, but if Russia attacked, I think I will run,” says Marcel, seeking medicine.

Another student, SZYMON: “I may be the first to try to escape from the country.” “I just don’t see anything worth death here.”

An additional report from Alexandra Stefanovich