Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday that NATO should react to Russia’s partial mobilization by offering even more support to Ukraine. Morawiecki was responding to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement ordering a partial mobilization in his country, which was to start on the very same day. The partial mobilization is to include reservists, which are people who already served in the Russian military.
“Russia will continue its work of destruction, and it will try to destroy Ukraine and take a part of its territory,” said Morawiecki, who watched over the joint Polish, U.K., and U.S. military exercise Bear-22 in Nowa Dęba, southeastern Poland.
The head of the Polish government said that Russia suffered a couple of severe defeats recently, which caused the Russians to switch to another strategy of “changing borders, maps, annexation of territories.”
“We cannot agree to this,” said Morawiecki. “We want to live in peace with a Russia that has peaceful relations with the entire world. But when Russia shows its brutal force, we must display our protective force,” said Morawiecki.
“In response to this mobilization, the entire community of free countries, especially NATO, the strongest alliance in the history of the world, must react with support for Ukraine. Russia cannot win in Ukraine,” added the Polish prime minister.
Morawiecki pointed out that Poland’s membership in NATO is a powerful security guarantee, however, Polish Armed Forces are also extremely important to defend the country.
“We have a very good cooperation with our allies, but also a great program of modernization of Poland’s military,” he said.
He noted that defense spending in Poland increased from recent years from €6.4 billion (30 billion zloty) to €21.3 billion (100 billion zloty), which is the budget figure planned for the next year, plus a plan of spending extra-budgetary funds to procure military hardware. He also reiterated that technical modernization requires money, above all.
The Polish prime minister mentioned contracts for U.S.-made Patriot air-defense systems, F-35 jets and Abrams tanks, but also weapons sourced from South Korea, including tanks, self-propelled artillery, and training and combat planes.
He stated that Poland “will not abandon this path and these priorities.”
“Poland will be strong, even stronger, thanks to its military and our alliances,” said Morawiecki. He added that after visiting military exercises conducted on Wednesday, he was even more convinced that the “foundation for Poland’s security is becoming ever stronger.”
