As of: February 6, 2024, 4:28 a.m
By: Patrick Mayer
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Press
Split
After Norway, Sweden and Finland, Poland is no longer ruling out a possible war with Russia.
Warsaw is taking precautions.
Warsaw - The Ukraine war as a warning example: In view of ongoing threats from Moscow, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has declared that his country no longer rules out the threat of war with Russia.
Poland must prepare for such a war, he said in an interview with the daily
Super Express
.
German neighbor: Poland is making preparations for possible war with Russia
His ministry has already begun concrete preparatory steps, he said.
When asked whether he thought a military defeat for Ukraine and a direct Russian attack on Poland was possible, the conservative politician replied: “I expect every scenario and take the worst ones most seriously.
That is the job of a defense minister in the situation we find ourselves in today.”
According to 42-year-old Kosiniak-Kamysz, we are currently checking what gaps there are in the weaponry.
Since the beginning of the Russian attack on neighboring Ukraine, the country with around 38.5 million inhabitants has been significantly upgrading its armed forces.
Poland's Defense Minister: Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz (front right), here with Donald Tusk (left), the Prime Minister of the neighboring German country.
© IMAGO/Dominika Zarzycka
Poland is arming itself: its German neighbor orders 1,000 tanks in South Korea
According to ARD's “Tagesschau”, the NATO member spent the equivalent of around 14.6 billion euros on tanks, missile defense systems and combat aircraft between spring 2022 and summer 2023.
Among other things, Warsaw ordered 500 American HIMARS artillery rocket systems in February last year.
As early as the summer of 2022, Poland had (believed) ordered 1,000 “K2” main battle tanks and 672 “K9” self-propelled howitzers from South Korea.
The first models of South Korean tanks arrived in Gdansk on the Baltic Sea months ago.
For comparison: According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS),
the German Bundeswehr had
a total of 321 Leopard 2 tanks in its inventory in 2022, so over 200 were stored with the troops or with the German arms industry.
18 Leopard 2A6s have since gone to the Ukrainians.
Poland, on the other hand, also ordered 96 state-of-the-art AH-64E “Apache” attack helicopters from the USA in August last year.
Signal to Moscow: Poland commemorates the “Battle of Warsaw”
That's not all: On August 15, Germany's neighbor commemorated the “Battle of Warsaw” of 1920, also known as the “Miracle on the Vistula,” with a large military parade.
At that time, after the collapse of the Russian Empire as a result of the First World War, Polish troops had defeated Bolshevik forces who wanted to occupy the new Polish territory and bring the young independent country back under Moscow's influence.
The parade was seen as a signal to the Kremlin not to try again.
The new government (December 13, 2023) of the economically liberal-conservative Prime Minister Donald Tusk is considered to be strongly oriented towards the West and the European Union (EU).
A statement from the Bundeswehr on “Steadfast Defender 2024” indicates that the German armed forces and the Polish army, together with Lithuanian troops, will be responsible for the defense of the small Baltic country (around 2.8 million inhabitants) as well as the will train to defend the Suwalki Corridor on the Polish-Lithuanian border.
Located between NATO states on the Baltic Sea: the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
© dpa/Graphic: A. Brühl, Editor: J. Schneider
NATO maneuvers: Bundeswehr trains defense of Lithuania with Polish army
Germany is sending the army's 10th Panzer Division with up to 13,000 soldiers.
The fear: The Baltics could be cut off by the Russians overland.
Meanwhile, the major NATO exercise “Steadfast Defender” was sharply criticized by Russia.
According to the Bundeswehr, “the focus is on multinational combat exercises in Poland and Lithuania, among others,” which suggests simulated battles around the Suwalki Corridor.
The Suwalki Gap in question stretches over 104 kilometers near the small Polish town of Suwalken between the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus, which is allied with the Kremlin.
The corridor on the Polish-Lithuanian border is considered the Achilles heel of the NATO defense alliance.
Before Poland, the Scandinavian countries Norway, Sweden and Finland had already warned of a possible war with Russia in recent weeks.
(pm)