As ordinary pillars are preparing for a Russian invasion

On the military training ground near the city of the city, ordinary pillars are lined up, waiting for the weapons and taught to shoot. “After loading the circle, the weapon is ready for firing,” – the instructor, the Polish soldier, his face are smeared with camouflage paint.

Young and old, men and women, parents and children, all come here for one reason: learn how to survive an armed attack.

In addition to the fact that this Saturday’s morning program, called the “Train with the Army”, also teaches civilians to combat hands, first aid and how to wear a gas mask.

“The times are now dangerous, we must be ready,” says project coordinator, Captain Adam Silitsky. “We have a military threat from Russia, and we are preparing for it.”

Captain Silitsky says the program is signed, and the Polish government is now planning to expand it so that every adult man is trained in the country. Poland, which is divided by both Russia and Ukraine, says that this year will spend almost 5% of GDP for NATO.

Last week, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Poland was seeking to build a “strongest army in the region”. Warsaw is engaged in costs while buying planes, ships, artillery systems and missiles from the US, Sweden and South Korea.

Darish is one of those who attend Saturday’s course in Wroclaw and says he will become “the very first” for volunteers when Poland is attacked. “History has taught us that we must be ready to defend ourselves. We cannot rely on anyone else. Today, there are alliances, and they are broken tomorrow.”

When he removes the gas mask, Bartek says he believes that most Poles will “take over their weapons” when they attack, “and be prepared to defend the country.”

Agatha visits a friend. He says Donald Trump’s election made people worry more. “He wants to pull out (from Europe). So we feel even less safe. If we are not ready and Russia attacks us, we will simply become their prisoners.”

Donald Trump’s statements and his administration members have caused deep concern about officials in Warsaw. During his visit to the Polish capital in February, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegset said Europe should not believe that the presence of US units on the continent “will last forever”.

Currently, the US has 10,000 troops located in Poland, but last month, Washington announced that he was pulling out of a key military base in the city of Rezeshava in eastern Poland. Officials say the troops will be redistributed in Poland, but the move has caused even more disobedience in the country.

Donald Trump’s obvious enmity to the President of Ukrainian Volodimir Zelensky, and the warm words for Russia to Vladimir Putin only added anxiety.

Poland must sign a defense agreement with France in the coming days, and another Pact with the UK is in the pipeline – it is additionally moving Warsaw to cancel its historically strong military relations with Washington. There is also a talk that Poland is brought under the “nuclear umbrella” of the French military.

“I think (Trump) certainly pressed us to think more creatively about our security,” says Tomas Tamkowski, a permanent representative of Poland to NATO and the Presidential Protection Advisor. “I think the US cannot afford to lose Poland because it will be a sign … that you cannot rely on the US. However, we need to think about other options and develop our own capabilities.”

“If the Russians continue their aggressive intentions against Europe, we will be the first goalkeeper,” says Mr. Satkovsky. He attributes Poland’s rapid military increase “, above all, a geopolitical situation, as well as history experience.”

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

In the House of Care of the State in Warsaw, 98-year-old Wanda Trakik-Staska recalls that the last time Russian troops were invaded in 1939, when the pact between Stalin and Hitler led to the fact that Poland was cut between the USSR and Nazi Germany.

“In 1939, I was twelve years old. I remember how my father was very concerned (Russians),” Vanda recalls, “we knew that Russia attacked us, they took advantage of the Germans.”

On the shelf – a photo of Wanda as a fighter that breaks the machine gun during the uprising in Warsaw 1944, when the Polish subway fought with the German army among the ruins of the city. Subsequently, the Soviet Union established a residential regime that ruled the country until 1989 in Poland.

Currently, about 216,000 troops and women make up the Polish armed forces. The government states that it intends to increase it to half a million, including reservists, what will give it the second largest NATO military after the United States.

I ask Wanda if she thinks it is good that Poland creates its military. “Of course, yes. Russia is recorded in its history. I’m not talking about people, but the authorities are always like that,” she sighs. “It is better to be a well-armed country than to expect when something happens. Because I am a soldier who remembers that the weapon is the most important thing.”

Eighty years since the end of World War II, the Poles are again nervously looking at their neighbors. In the warehouse in southern Poland, in popular demand, one company built a shelter in a bomb.

“These shelters are designed primarily to protect against the nuclear bomb, but also from armed attacks,” says Janusz Janets, Boss Shollepro, which shows me around a steel bin complete with bunk beds and ventilation system. “People build these shelters simply because they don’t know what to expect tomorrow.”

Janusz says the demand for the shelter took off as Donald Trump took office. “There used to be only a few telephone calls a month. There are dozens a week now,” he says, “my clients are most afraid of Russia. And they are concerned that NATO will not come to defend Poland. “

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

On a sunny day, I ask Polish students whether they will be ready to defend their country if they attack. Most say no. “The war is very close, but it feels quite far,” says Medical student, “but when Russia has attacked, I think I ran.”

“I probably would be the first to try to avoid the country,” says another student, Shimon. “I just don’t see anything, what should I die here.”

Additional report by Aleksandra Stefanowicz