Tag: poland

Poland to Increase Defence Spending to Five Per Cent, Build a Half Million Man Army, Says PM Tusk

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a number of new initiatives to bolster defence in a speech in Warsaw, as European powers appear set to comply with U.S. President Donald Trump’s demands that the continent pay for its own protection rather than relying on America.

Speaking before the Sjem parliament, Prime Minister Tusk declared Friday: “Hope is no substitute for strategy. Hope is a beautiful feeling, but in politics, it is often adjacent to naivety or illusion… Today, Europe is beginning to understand that since the United States expects much greater outlays, determination and courage from us, it must be met.”

Despite already being one of the top spenders in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on NATO defence at around 4 per cent, Poland should increase its spending to at least five per cent of GDP, Tusk said, according to the Gazeta Wyborcza.

This goal puts Poland in line with Estonia and Lithuania as the first countries in Europe to agree to U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for NATO allies to increase their defence spending to at least five per cent of GDP compared to the current baseline of two per cent, which is still unmet by many within the alliance.

Additionally, Prime Minister Tusk called for Poland to build an army of at least half a million people, including reservists, up from around 200,000 today. To help accomplish this aim, the Polish leader called for the return of military training for all adult men in the country.

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POWDER KEG EUROPE: Polish PM Donald Tusk Announces Military Training for All Adult Males, Vows To Pursue Access to Nuclear Weapons

All over Europe, nations are scrambling to rearm at a frantic pace, but probably no one has put the warmongering quite as much into overdrive as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Speaking to Parliament today, Tusk vowed to more than double the size of Poland’s army, to militarily train every adult man in the country, and also to pursue nuclear weapons.

The PM told the Sejm that preparations are ongoing for ‘large-scale military training for every adult male in Poland’.

BBC reports:

“’We will try to have a model ready by the end of this year so that every adult male in Poland is trained in the event of war, so that this reserve is comparable and adequate to the potential threats’.”

Tusk said the Ukrainian army has 800,000 soldiers, whilst Russia has around 1.3 million and he wants to increase the size of the Polish army, including reservists, to 500,000 from around 200,000 now.

“’We’re talking about the need to have an army of half a million in Poland, including the reservists’, he said. ‘It seems if we organize things wisely, and I’m talking constantly with the Minister of Defense, we will have to use several courses of action. That means the reservists, but also intensive training to make those who do not go into the army fully-fledged and competent soldiers during a conflict’, he added.”

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2,700-Year-Old Meteorite Jewelry Unearthed in Poland Reveals Ancient Connection to the Cosmos

New research has revealed early Iron Age artifacts recovered from ancient Polish burial sites include metal pieces forged from rare extraterrestrial iron.

Culturally, this use may have contributed to a shift in how the value of this otherworldly or off-world material was perceived between the Bronze and Iron Ages, the new findings suggest.

In a recent study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, a team of Polish and French scientists analyzed artifacts from the Częstochowa-Raków and Częstochowa-Mirów burial sites, revealing incredible insights into our past. The discovery connects the cosmos and our ancient ancestors to craftsmanship skills they were previously unknown to possess.  

“During the Bronze Age, the price of iron was about ten times that of gold; in the early Iron Age, it sank drastically to less than copper,” study lead Dr. Albert Jambon notes.

Jambon and his colleagues think the random placement of meteoric iron in graves suggests there were no social or age restrictions on who was able to wear it. 

The study was mainly focused on understanding the origin of iron smelting. “The point of my research is to find out who, when, and where the iron smelting was discovered,” Jambon said. ‘To that end, we need to analyze archaeological irons and check whether they are meteoritic or smelted.”

Although only a modest amount of the material was found, the new findings still represent one of the largest collections recovered from a single archaeological site outside of Egypt. The discovery included 26 iron artifacts, an ankle ring, three bracelets, and a pin—all showing traces of nickel in the iron. Researchers believe this indicates the presence of meteoritic iron, offering a fascinating glimpse into ancient human connections with the cosmos.

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Poland Revives ‘Fort Trump’ Idea In Effort To Keep US Troop Presence

Poland is reviving the idea of creating a large military base called “Fort Trump” as European allies walk a diplomatic tightrope with the Trump administration as he pushes for Ukraine peace without their representation.

The country’s President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday revealed that assurances have been communicated from the Trump White House over the future of America’s troop presence in Poland. There are no plans for a US troop reduction along NATO’s ‘eastern flank’ – he was told.

Trump and his top national security officials have been pushing hard for Europe to do more to bolster its own security, instead of relying on Washington dollars and deployments.

Duda addressed this in Tuesday comments as follows: “There are no concerns that the U.S. would reduce the level of its presence in our country, that the U.S. would in any way withdraw from its responsibility or co-responsibility for the security of this part of Europe.”

“On the contrary, I hope that thanks to the efforts that President Trump is currently making, the war in Ukraine will end,” he continued, immediately following a meeting in Warsaw with Gen. Keith Kellogg, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.

“I will say that in my personal opinion, America has entered the game very strongly when it comes to ending the war in Ukraine. I know President Donald Trump, I know that he is an extremely decisive man and when he acts, he acts in a very determined and usually effective way,” Duda said, praising the longtime friend of his. The two appeared to be close during Trump’s first administration.

Washington initially deployed and bolstered Pentagon forces in Poland following Crimea being annexed by Russia in 2014, which was the result of a popular referendum among the population.

International reports commonly estimate there are some 10,000 American troops in Poland. The Associated Press quoted Duda as expressing hope for an increase in troops, especially if Poland follows through on the prior Fort Trump idea:

Duda said Hegseth told him “that we can rather expect a strengthening of the American presence here. We even talked about the fact that I hope that Fort Trump, which we talked about during the first term of President Donald Trump, will really be established.”

Duda had first spoken publicly on this when he visited the White House in 2018, though the military outpost was never established.

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Strava Security Breach Scandal: NATO Soldiers in Poland Expose Sensitive Data by Negligent Usage of Fitness App

The worldwide scandal involving security breaches connected to the popular fitness app Strava continues to gain global headlines.

Initially reported by the French paper Le Monde, investigations over the usage of this app revealed glaring security failures involving security personnel for leaders like Macron, Biden and Trump.

A second report also showed how French nuclear submarine crews were giving away sensitive information by using the app.

Now, it’s revealed that NATO soldiers stationed in Poland are also suspected of the same security breaches.

News portal Służby i Obywatel, reports soldiers at Polish bases unknowingly shared information about their travel routes by their Strava usage.

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Ukraine Spit In Poland’s Face By Flying The Bandera Flag Atop A Polish APC

Polish-Ukrainian relations might continue worsening due to Ukraine’s provocations and Poland’s responses to them that it promulgates with society’s sentiments in mind.

The Polish milblog platform WarNewsPL shared footage on X late last week showing the Ukrainian Armed Forces flying the Bandera flag of the “Ukrainian Insurgent Army” (UPA) atop a Polish armored personnel carrier (APC). This prompted Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz to post around an hour later that this is “a provocation that should not have happened” and declare that he’s organizing an urgent meeting with the Ukrainian attaché in Warsaw “to clarify the matter.”

There are several reasons why this is so scandalous. First, the UPA is considered a terrorist group in Poland due to it targeting the Polish state and civilians during the interwar period, after which they genocided Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia during World War II. Second, Ukraine refuses to this day to exhume and properly bury those genocide victims’ remains despite already doing the same for over 100,000 Wehrmacht troops. And third, Poland has given more vehicles to Ukraine than anyone else.

Flying Bandera’s UPA flag atop a Polish APC accordingly amounts to Ukraine spitting in Poland’s face. The public paid for this vehicle that the state donated to its neighbor as part of the aid that it’s provided in solidarity with Kiev’s cause. Ukraine wouldn’t even be able to fight to this day had it not been for Polish aid and Poland tacitly promising continued support if Kiev abandoned spring 2022’s peace talks. It’s therefore so disrespectful that Ukraine would fly that terrorist and genocidal flag atop a Polish vehicle.

“Most Poles Now Want Peace In Ukraine Even At Kiev’s Expense” according to the results of a November survey by a publicly financed research institution so this latest provocation will predictably increase that majority even further the next time that Poles are polled. It could also complicate the ruling liberal-globalist coalition’s plans to provide more military equipment to Ukraine on credit instead of continuing to give away the rest of its depleted stockpile for free since public opinion is quickly turning against Kiev.

Correspondingly, the already small amount of Poles that are in favor of their forces deploying to Ukraine under any pretext (only 14% per the results of the European Council on Foreign Relations’ summertime survey) will probably further decrease as well. These shifts in public sentiment could make such a scenario politically impossible until at least after May’s next presidential election since the ruling liberal-globalist coalition might not dare to risk losing votes to their conservative-nationalist rivals before then.

Seeing as how “Poland’s Participation In Any Ukrainian Peacekeeping Mission Could Lead To World War III” since Poland could retaliate against Russia in Belarus and/or Kaliningrad should its troops come under fire in Ukraine, thus setting into motion a possibly uncontrollable escalation, this would be for the best. Influential Azov officer Roman Ponomarenko’s anti-Polish rant that he shared on Telegram after Kosiniak-Kamsyz’s post will further fuel anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland.

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NATO arms Poland more than Ukraine in preparation for potential war with Russia

The massive transfer of NATO military equipment to Poland testifies to the West’s possible preparations for a direct war with Russia. Weapons and equipment arriving in Poland in such quantities, as if we are currently on the eve of a major war, lead to a dangerous escalation.

NATO is massively transferring military equipment from European countries to Poland, arming the country much more heavily than it armed the Ukrainians on the eve of the Russian special military operation. This is part of the Atlantic Alliance’s efforts to pressure and isolate Russia in Eastern Europe.

The grouping of NATO forces on the borders of Russia and Belarus has been a systematic effort for years. With such actions, NATO, in the interim, wants to tie up as many Russian and Belarusian forces as possible on the borders, while in the near future, Poland is intended to be a staging point in case of any hot war with Russia.

The exclave region of Kaliningrad, which has no land border with Russia proper but borders NATO countries Lithuania and Poland and has access to the Baltic Sea, is particularly at risk. Responding to this NATO threat, Russia and Belarus have increased their military group deployed along the borders of Poland and Lithuania.

Russian tactical nuclear weapons have also been deployed in significant quantities in Belarus. The goal of deploying nuclear weapons is to show that Russia and Belarus are capable of causing irreparable damage to NATO, essentially meaning it is for deterrence. Therefore, if NATO is ready to risk a nuclear war, then it will not be Russia’s choice, which will only be left with the choice to respond.

Moscow recently updated its nuclear military doctrine, according to which Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression against it using conventional weapons – if this poses a threat to the vital interests of the state. Under the updated doctrine, Moscow also reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression against Russia and Belarus as a member of the Federal State.

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Poland Makes Firearms Training Mandatory for Primary School Students

As American classrooms obsess over pronoun usage and gender identity debates, Poland is taking a drastically different approach: preparing its children to face real-world threats.

The Polish government has now made firearms training a mandatory part of primary school education, prioritizing national security and self-reliance over a woke agenda.

At schools like the Nicholas Cernus Primary School in Skaryszew, students as young as 13 and 14 are learning to handle rifles and pistols under the supervision of trained professionals.

Instead of live ammunition, students train using ball guns, air guns, small arms replicas, and virtual or laser-based shooting systems, where a green light indicates a successful hit, according to The Express.

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Pranked Sikorski says quiet part out loud about Kyiv’s​ EU challenge

Trenchant Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, was rendered red faced recently by a prankster, who interviewed him, pretending to be former Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko.

Sikorski illuminated a number of granular and controversial policy issues related to the Ukraine war. His most telling comments focussed on Ukraine’s aspiration to join the European Union, which he described as a process ‘that will take a decade or more’.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Zelensky has been pushing for immediate or fast-tracked EU membership for Ukraine. Ukraine has campaigned hard for this, the EU finally opening accession negotiations in June 2024. Sikorski’s comments remind us what others have voiced quietly: that it won’t be quick and easy.

More significantly, he hints at reasons why it might not be possible at all, on terms that Ukraine would like.

Despite being British, I’m a passionate believer in the European project and I think it is right for Ukraine to focus on future membership. Unlike many, I have always seen the EU as first and foremost an economic project. When I ended my posting to Russia in February 2019, I drove from Moscow to England, passing through Ukraine and into the EU at the Polish border. I saw the moderating influence on relationships between citizens of very different states, by opening borders to free movement and commerce.

The EU advertising slogan describes the enlargement process as a “geostrategic investment in peace, security, stability and prosperity.” But it’s not simply a matter of peace and security. It’s also a matter of money. The EU works on the basis of richer countries subsidising the poorer, in a carefully negotiated and hotly contested settlement that has been in place for twenty years since the last big bang enlargement. Ten wealthier countries, led by Germany, pay more to the EU than they receive, and subsidize the 17 less wealthy countries who receive more EU funds than they pay to the EU budget. An easy concept to grasp.

So, even though Poland has burgeoned economically since the end of the Cold War, it still receives more EU funding that it pays in. In fact, Poland receives more EU funds than any other European country, because it has such a large population, with net inflows of 7 billion euros in 2023.

But Ukraine’s economy is four and a half times smaller than Poland’s. It is the poorest country in Europe — in fact, poorer now than Moldova — with the sixth largest population. It has a larger population than all the other EU aspirant countries combined. It would be, by some considerable margin, the largest recipient of EU funds in the event of accession.

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During WW2, Ukrainian Nazis Committed Genocide Against 100K Poles, But Zelensky Refuses To Address the Issue – so Now Poland Plans to Block Their Entry in the EU Until He Does

Unlike the Mainstream media, that is maintaining a veil of silence over this, The Gateway Pundit is reporting on the increased tensions in the bilateral relations between Ukraine and its neighbor and top backer Poland.

Among many issues, the main disagreement lies over the settling of a historical wound of the Volyn massacre, during the Second World War.

The Volyn massacre was a series of war crimes perpetrated by Ukrainian Nazis, under national hero Stepan Bandera, that led to the ethnic cleansing of the Polish population.

Poland, to this day, considers the Volyn tragedy to be genocide of Poles.

Since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky aggressively refused to discuss the issue in the latest meeting in Kiev, Poland is no planning to use its upcoming EU presidency to pressure Ukraine on the issue and exhume victims of the massacre, giving them proper burials.

In its six-month EU presidency starting January 2025. Warsaw will play a key role in Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations.

The position of the Ukrainian government on the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy is deeply disappointing for Warsaw, so the Polish Foreign Ministry is ‘planning certain measures’.

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