Poland prepares for war with Russia

 

 

By The Daily Journalist.

 

 

The crisis in Ukraine is creating in Poland a sense of palpable threat and President Bronislaw Komorowski has just appointed as supreme commander of the Armed Forces the Lieutenant General Marek Tomaszycki, a decision it deems necessary “to the growing instability” in the region.

Tomaszycki, 57, operational commander of the Armed Forces of Poland since January 1, 2014, would automatically assume operational command of the army in case of an armed conflict with direct subordination to the head of the Polish state. “Behind this decision is the need to prepare, in peacetime, the Armed Forces for a hypothetical war situation,” said the president of Poland.

The creation of this position is the result of the recent reform in the Armed Forces, by the Polish State acquired “a real ability to respond efficiently and quickly to a hazardous manner,” according to Komorowski.

During an official ceremony at the presidential palace, the president stressed the urgent need to “strengthen the capacity of defense of Poland in a troubled region for us and our time”, in line with the justifications of recent NATO exercises and ahead of the meeting of defense ministers of the Alliance held Wednesday in Brussels, where the Russian nuclear threat will be addressed.

In the context of increased tensions between Russia and the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin has surreptitiously raised the threat, a strategy that hides the military backwardness of Russia. Putin has declared its readiness to use nuclear weapons and has announced that it will provide the Russian strategic forces 40 new intercontinental missiles by the end of the year, ensuring that install short-range missiles in Kaliningrad, on the doors of the Union European.

Russian experts argue, however, that there was no novelty in the matter, since Russia launched 15 years ago to modernize its nuclear forces and the measure does not violate in any way the START treaty to reduce strategic weapons. Moscow claims that acquired 38 intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2014, provides another 40 this year and is withdrawing parallel 72, too old, which ultimately will mean reducing its arsenal land (about 300 missiles), according to Igor Sutyagin, a military expert at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London.

But the perception in Poland is very different. Russia is perceived as a potential enemy wanting to fight such outstanding issues as the nuclear threat even in the most seemingly insignificant selling fruit and vegetables. Poland was the leading exporter of apple thanks to the 840 million euros that Russia spent on the purchase of the fruit until the sanctions stopped it causing a wound to national Poland’s pride. The Warsaw government responded with a campaign whose slogan was “eating apples against Putin” and bookstores, with the biography of Wojtyla, display in their windows books of recipes made from apples.

 

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