We have already mentioned that Poland is going to increase the number of ground forces to 80,000 troops by forming two new all-military divisions to be stationed along the Vistula River in the central region of the country. It has now become known that there are even more ambitious plans to increase the total number of Polish troops to 400,000.

However, this was announced by the chairman of the Polish ruling party Law and Justice Jarosław Kaczyński. He stressed the need to increase the army to protect the country.

“Our government is working to ensure that Poland does not repeat the fate of Ukraine. To make up for lost time, we need to constantly improve our defense industry. The Polish government will purchase about 500 HIMARS, 32 F-35 fighters, 250 M1A2 SEPv3 tanks, 8 Patriot batteries and about 500 new main battle tanks. This military equipment can effectively deter Russia,” the politician said.

In fact, it is a remarkable increase that cannot be achieved even for several years. According to The Military Balance 2021, the Polish Army has 114,000 members. By 2022, the Polish Wikipedia indicates a figure of 163,100 soldiers. At the same time, in 2019, according to the plan of the Minister of National Defense Mariusz Błaszczak, the Polish army was to number at least 200 thousand soldiers. In 2021, plans were announced for 300 thousand people.

At present, Poland’s military budget is 2.2% of GDP, which is much more than in most NATO countries. Moreover, Poland plans to increase its military budget to 3%. According to NATO requirements, the military budget should be at least 2% of GDP, currently, only a few members of the bloc fulfill these requirements are the USA, Greece, Poland, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. On the other hand, since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, the situation has changed for the better, in 2014 only three (3!) Countries met these requirements – the United States, Great Britain, and quite unexpectedly Greece.

In any case, Poland is now rapidly arming itself and at the same time helping Ukraine with weapons, for which we would like to thank them.