{"id":11403,"date":"2026-06-11T09:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/11403\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T09:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:06:11","slug":"poland-prepares-to-stand-its-ground-with-massive-new-civil-defence-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/11403\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland prepares to stand its ground with massive new civil defence programme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine the following scenario: it is 2042 and the Ukrainian<\/a> front is frozen. The Russian<\/a> authorities have decided to make Poland<\/a> the main target of an attack on NATO<\/a>. Russian forces advancing from the north (Kaliningrad Oblast) and east (Belarus<\/a>) cross Poland\u2019s eastern border, link up, and push forward as far as the Vistula River.<\/p>\n

Massive cyberattacks<\/a> hamper communications and the roads are blocked with innumerable panic-stricken refugees seeking safety as thousands of drones<\/a> buzz overhead. NATO allies, divided and weakened since the United States<\/a> withdrew from the Alliance several years ago, hesitate to intervene as Polish forces find themselves overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

This is just one of the scenarios projected by a recent Polish report<\/a>. The wGotowo\u015bci, or Readiness, programme<\/a>\u00a0was created to prepare Polish society for any number of situations ranging from cyberwar<\/a> to a full-scale invasion. The initiative is\u00a0\u201cthe largest program of universal, voluntary defence training in Polish history\u201d, the country\u2019s Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said when the program was launched in November last year.<\/p>\n

The programme stands out among similar initiatives<\/a> to train European civilians for war because of its massive scale. Kosiniak-Kamysz said he hoped 400,000 people would complete training sessions by the end of 2026. The wide age range \u2013 with no upper limit \u2013 includes everyone from teenagers to seniors.<\/p>\n

Promoting the military within society <\/p>\n

\u201cThe programs are not actual training for military reservists, but rather projects promoting the military within society and intended for introductory purposes,\u201d said Col. Prof. Dariusz Kozerawski, a reserve colonel of the Polish Army and a member of the Department of National Security at the Jagiellonian University.<\/p>\n

Jacek Raubo, a defence and security expert agreed: \u201cIt\u2019s about promoting the Polish Army and other security structures among the public. Poland currently offers various forms of military service [while] recruitment for uniformed services is expanding and intelligence and counterintelligence services also constantly need personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

One of the first of three US-made F-35 aircraft in Polish Air Force colours taxis along the runway at the 32nd Tactical Air Base in Lask, central Poland, on May 22, 2026. \u00a9 Wojtek Radwanski, AFP <\/p>\n

Since the start of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland has increased its military spending to 5 percent of its gross domestic product. It has also bought tanks, air defence systems, infantry fighting vehicles, rocket systems, stealth jets and drones to build one of the largest<\/a> artillery inventories in Europe<\/a>. It has also set a target of 300,000 troops by 2039,<\/a>\u00a0which would make its armed forces the largest in NATO<\/a>, after the US and Turkey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wGotowo\u015bci \u2018Readiness\u2019 programme should be analysed as part of a broader system for building resilience in Poland,\u201d said Raubo, adding that the programme can be considered a success if in a crisis, even just one citizen makes good decisions based on the awareness built in the training modules.<\/p>\n

Surviving bombings <\/p>\n

The nature of warfare<\/a> is evolving quickly, with a fundamental shift to drones and technologies linked to artificial intelligence<\/a>. Yet civilians \u201cmust understand that war brings destruction and loss beyond the military sphere\u201d, Raubo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPromoting the ability to survive in cities and rural areas, the ability to self-organise in the event of a crisis (even radical scenarios, such as occupation), not to mention surviving bombings and fluctuating access to water, food, electricity, or heat, is crucial. New and groundbreaking technologies are one thing; the ability of humans to survive in crisis is another.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an article on Poland and Europe\u2019s struggle against hybrid warfare<\/a>, Oksana Trefanenko, a staff writer at the Harvard International Review, underlined the importance of military training for civil society. \u201cInvesting in initiatives\u00a0that strengthen societal resilience is an essential element of defence strategy, as public trust in democratic institutions significantly\u00a0reduces the effectiveness\u00a0of disinformation and psychological operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hope as a resource <\/p>\n

As seen in Ukraine, hope is just as much of a resource as the weapons used on the battlefield. \u201cWars aren\u2019t fought by armies, but by societies. If the belief in our ability to withstand the war breaks down, so too will the will to fight,\u201d said Taras Chmut, a civil-society activist<\/a> interviewed by the Economist.<\/p>\n

Read more‘Disposable spies’: Poland records unprecedented number of Russian espionage cases<\/a><\/p>\n

Programmes like wGotowo\u015bci might reinforce that sense of hope, given that they promote the idea that everyone can contribute to the war effort. Yet they are not a panacea to Poland\u2019s immense security challenge. Critics of the program say it overburdens the officers responsible for teaching the courses as they face the Herculean task of protecting Polish territory from an unprecedented number of sabotage incidents<\/a> orchestrated by Moscow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overloading of operational forces with tasks like conducting the \u2018Readiness\u2019 program, protecting railway lines, patrolling the Polish-Belarusian border and cleaning up after floods<\/a> should be performed by other formations subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration, like the police or border guard,\u201d said Kozerawski.<\/p>\n

As a Cold-war ambiance progressively settles over Europe, Poland faces \u201cenormous challenges\u201d, Raubo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA potential adversary may be exploring new domains: cyber, information-cognitive, space and electromagnetic. Citizen training must encompass an increasingly broad spectrum of responses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Military experts interviewed by FRANCE 24 viewed the courses positively\u00a0\u2013 while maintaining that their impact on increasing national defence was minimal.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, they represent a small act of resistance in an increasingly dangerous world.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagine the following scenario: it is 2042 and the Ukrainian front is frozen. The Russian authorities have decided…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[227,74,4648,4225,323,9,126,127,8364],"class_list":["post-11403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-defence","tag-europe","tag-features","tag-national-security","tag-nato","tag-poland","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-war-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}