NOWOGROD, Poland (AP) — With assault rifles in front of them, young Polish men and women kneel in the grass and follow orders on how to pack their survival kits. Next comes a lesson on how to apply camouflage paint to your faces. Not too neon, says an instructor as she shows how to add dark green stripes.
Many of the participants in the training in eastern Poland are recent high school graduates, with the men’s heads freshly shaved and the women’s hair tied back. They signed up for a new summer program, “Holidays with the Army”, which offers basic military training to thousands of Poles aged between 18 and 35.
The military introduced the program in a search for recruits as Poland expands its 198,000-member army in the face of renewed Russian aggression in the region, including neighboring Ukraine.
Despite the name of the program, it is not a holiday. Recruits wake up early to learn combat and survival skills. When not in the field, they clean their living quarters. There is no way to leave the base, 130 kilometers (80 miles) from the Belarusian border, to visit home or go out at night. They earn 6,000 zlotys ($1,500) for 28 days.
There has been great interest in the program, which is taking place in 70 locations across Poland, officials say.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sparked a push among Poles to want to defend the nation, said Major Michal Tomczyk, a Defense Ministry spokesman.
“We haven’t had such a threat since World War II,” Tomczyk said. He said they planned for 10,000 volunteers for the program and have more than 11,000.
At the end of the training, volunteers will take a soldier’s oath in which they swear to “loyally serve the Republic of Poland… even at the cost of losing my life or my blood”. Those who choose military life may join a branch of the professional military or the Territorial Defense Forces or stand by as reservists, said Col. Pawel Galazka, commander of the 18th Lomza Logistics Regiment, a unit that trains the volunteers.
“The army wants to train as many citizens as possible,” Galazka said. “Everyone knows about the threat coming from the east.”
The Lomza regiment’s training camp is in a forest clearing near the Narew River. The surrounding area has been defended by generations of Poles, from the time when Poland was divided and ruled by foreign powers, from the late 18th century to the early 20th century, until the Second World War, when the Germans and Soviets invaded.
The bunkers in the area are evidence of the Polish defense line that was breached when Nazi Germany invaded in 1939, triggering World War II.
The patriotism fueled by the story passed down in schools and by families helped motivate young people to join the new program, Galazka said.
One volunteer, 18-year-old Dominik Rojek, originally planned to study computer science. But problems in the region led him to switch to a military career, driven by the desire to defend his homeland. He hopes to continue his passion for computer science in the military and use his skills in cyber defense.
“Someone has to do this,” Rojek said. “Not everyone is capable of this, but we are capable of it. … There is no other way.”
Rojek’s generation came of age in peace and enjoyed the growing prosperity that has been the dividend of the collapse of Moscow-backed communism across the region 35 years ago.
But young Poles, like their generation across NATO’s eastern front, fear they can no longer take that peace for granted.
Russia’s initial seizure of Ukrainian territory in 2014 caused nervousness in the region. But its full-scale invasion brought a major realignment of security from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and forced nations and individuals to consider the prospect of one day taking up arms.
Sweden and Finland broke their neutrality to join NATO, and some nations are considering introducing mandatory conscription. Denmark says it plans expand your recruitment to include women.
In Poland, a member of NATO and the European Union, the threat seems close. Some stray Russian missiles landed in Poland.
On the border with Belarus, an ally of Russia, migrants arrive in large numbers trying to get in every day, and recently attacked Polish authorities, killing a soldier. Warsaw says the migration pressure was created by Russia and Belarus and sees it as a form of hybrid warfare against the West.
“The Russians and Belarusians engineered an attack on our border,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said in a recent international conference in Berlin dedicated to the recovery of Ukraine.
Russian authorities have repeatedly threatened Poland. Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and ally of President Vladimir Putin, called Poland a “dangerous enemy” that risks losing its statehood.
Along Poland’s northern border lies the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, where Poland believes Moscow stores around 100 tactical nuclear warheads.
Poles should think about what could happen and be prepared, said Magdalena Klos, 34, one of the volunteers in the new training.
She had long dreamed of becoming a soldier, but hoped her children would be old enough. They are now 9 and 11 and she feels like their time has finally come.
“I’m proud to wear the uniform,” she said. “I am not only a mother and wife, but also a soldier.”
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Rafal Niedzielski contributed to this report.
