The Polish army reached 160 thousand soldiers

The Polish army is rapidly increasing its size and might become one of the largest in Europe.

Mariusz Błaszczak, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense of Poland, reported this.

At the moment, Poland is trying to implement a plan to create the most powerful ground forces in Europe.

“If we complete our plan, if we can implement it without hindrance after the autumn elections, then within a short time, the Polish ground forces will become the strongest in Europe. Yes, we will consistently come to this. Not because we want to attack someone. No. Because we want to effectively scare off the aggressor,” Błaszczak said.

He noted that Poland should draw conclusions from the war in Ukraine.

According to him, currently, the Polish army, together with the Territorial Defense Forces, counts 160,000 soldiers.

Previously, the Head of the Ministry of Defense mentioned that his goal was to increase the size of the army to 300,000 soldiers.

The war in Donbas was one of the most important factors that led to the creation of the Territorial Defense Forces in Poland.

Then it became apparent that it is necessary to have, first of all, a large number of soldiers capable of acting, in particular, locally, at the place of residence, in the areas they know best. This was also influenced by observing and analyzing the activities of Ukrainian volunteer formations in 2014 and 2015.

The Territorial Defense of Poland is financed centrally, that is, through the budget of the Ministry of Defense of Poland.

In Poland, a Territorial Defense soldier is paid 411 zlotys per month (almost 90 euros. — ed.). In addition, he receives approximately 120 zlotys (almost 20 euros) for each day of service. If a serviceman is unable to attend his primary job due to his service, the Ministry of Defense will financially compensate employers for the losses.

As previously reported, Poland is extending and expanding the basic military training program for civilians.