Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday that his government is working on a plan to draw up large -scale military training for every adult man in response to the changing safety situation in Europe.
The military training would create a reserve power that “is sufficient for possible threats,” Tusk said in a big speech about safety in the Poland -Lower -Huis of Parliament or SEJM.
He said there is a need for an army of 500,000 soldiers, including reservists.
Last year, the Polish Government said that the army consisted of around 200,000 soldiers and this year would grow to 220,000 with the aim of raising it to around 300,000.
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But the fears of safety have become much more dramatic in recent weeks, because Russia continues to crash Ukraine with missiles and drones, and because the Trump government has withdrawn military and intelligence support for Ukraine, while his commitments are made to NATO in question.
“Today we are talking about the need for half a million army in Poland,” Tusk said.
After his speech, Tusk explained to reporters that he did not consider no return of universal military service, but rather a reserve system based on the model in Switzerland. In that country, every man is obliged to serve in the army or an alternative civil service, while women can register if they want.
Poland, with a population of 38 million people, is located along the eastern flank of NATO and is deeply concerned about the war in Ukraine. There is fear that if Ukraine is defeated, Russia will change its imperial ambitions alongside countries like Poland, which Moscow checked in the 19th century and during the Cold War.
The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk speaks in the SEJM, the Lower House of Parliament, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, March 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Jaroslaw Kaczyński, the head of the largest opposition party in Poland, Conservative Law and Justice, said that a mental shift in society would also be needed in addition to the military education of men.
“We will return to the chivalrous ethos and to the fact that men must also be soldiers, that is to be able to expose themselves, even to death,” said KaczyÅ„ski.
The concern has grown in Poland and in most of Europe, since US President Donald Trump has indicated a dramatically shifting attitude in Washington to someone who comprises the support of Russia’s position – although he has given a strict warning to Russia on Friday after having held up the Ukrainian energy facilities.
“If Ukraine loses war or if it accepts the conditions of peace, ceasefire or capitulation in such a way that his sovereignty weakens and makes it easier for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to get control About UkraineThen, without a doubt – and we can all agree on that – Poland will be in a much more difficult geopolitical situation, “Tusk said.
President Andrzej Duda said on Friday that he provided an amendment to the Polish Constitution to consider the country to spend at least 4% of his gross domestic product on defense every year.
Poland is already NATO’s top match for the defense as a percentage of his total economy, and this year spends more than 4% of his GDP. But Duda said that today he wanted to benefit from the consensus on the political stage in Poland about the issue to anchor it in the highest law.
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Trump has suggested that the US could give up its commitments to the Alliance if the Member States do not meet the objectives of the Defense expenditure.
