Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said in an interview published Monday that Poland must urgently prepare for the threat of war with Russia.
In the interview he gave to the Super Express newspaper, the Polish minister was asked if he considers a military defeat of Ukraine by Russia and a subsequent invasion of Poland possible in such a scenario. “I expect any scenario and take the worst seriously. That is the task of a defense minister in the situation we are in today," replied Kosiniak-Kamysz, who is part of the newly appointed government under Donald Tusk.
The minister added that he did not "spontaneously say these words", but carefully weighed them before considering the parameters of the Russia-Ukraine war and the risks. He also said that the ministry he leads has already started taking concrete measures and has already started preparing for the risk that the war from Ukraine will be transferred to Poland, so they have entered the process and are looking at the gaps they have in the supply of military equipment to military.
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Κρίσιμα τα πράγματα για τον Ζελένσκι σε Αβντίιβκα-Μπαχμούτ! Άνοιξαν "τρύπα" βάθους 1 χιλιομέτρου οι Ρώσοι (Βίντεο)
Although major arms purchases are very important, the individual equipment of each soldier must be treated with the same seriousness, the Polish minister said. He also said that Poland intends to play a very important role in the EU's common defence. Since the war in Ukraine began, Poland has increased its military budget to 4% of GDP - double the NATO commitment of 2% - and signed numerous contracts for massive arms purchases, notably with the US and South Korea.
In one of those contracts, the US approved, in late August, the sale of 96 Apache attack helicopters to the Polish military, a contract worth $12 billion. Other major US arms supply contracts were signed for 486 HIMARS multiple missile launchers, worth a total of about 10 billion euros, 32 F-35 fighter jets, 366 Abrams tanks and Patriot anti-aircraft systems.
The contracts signed with South Korea concern, in particular, the purchase of more than 800 K9 howitzers, about a thousand K2 Black Panther tanks, 50 FA-50 fighter jets and 288 K239 multiple rocket launchers. Poland also awarded the British subsidiary of European arms maker MBDA a contract worth about $2.4 billion to buy anti-aircraft missiles, plus a contract worth about €1.4 billion for four Norwegian Kongsberg antiship missile systems. The delivery of all this equipment will take place over a few years, and some of it, like the South Korean howitzers, will be partly manufactured in Poland.
