East Europeans taking up their own guns
PREPARATIONS: More citizens undertaking military training amid Ukraine conflict
WARSAW, Poland — NATO aircraft scream across eastern European skies and American armoured vehicles rumble near the border with Russia on a mission to reassure citizens that they’re safe from Russian aggression.
But these days, ordinary people aren’t taking any chances.
In Poland, doctors, shopkeepers, lawmakers and others are heeding a call to receive military training in case of an invasion. Neighbouring Lithuania is restoring the draft and teaching citizens what to do in case of war. Nearby Latvia has plans to give university students military training next year.
The drive to teach ordinary people how to use weapons and take cover under fire reflects soaring anxiety among people in a region where memories of Moscow’s domination — which ended only in the 1990s — remain raw. People worry that their security and hard-won independence are threatened as sabre-rattling intensifies between the West and Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, where more than 6,000 people have died.
It’s a danger felt across the EU newcomer states that border Russia.
“There’s a real feeling of threat in our society,” said Latvian defence ministry spokeswoman Aija Jakubovska.
Most people are still looking to NATO’s military umbrella as their main guarantor of security.
Poland has been at the forefront of warnings about the dangers of Ukraine conflict. Just 17 hours by car from the battle zone, Poland has stepped up efforts to upgrade its weapons arsenal, including a possible purchase of U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles. It will host a total of some 10,000 NATO and other allied troops for exercises this year.
It’s the grassroots mobilization that best demonstrates the fears: The government has reached out to some 120 paramilitary groups with tens of thousands of members, who are conducting their own drills, to streamline them with army exercises.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin seems to have singled out Poland, a staunch U.S. ally, as a prime enemy in the struggle over Ukraine.
In Warsaw, Mateusz Warszczak, 23, glowed with excitement as he signed up at a recruitment centre. “I want to be ready to defend my family, my relatives, from danger,” he said.
Even older Poles feel obliged to take responsibility for their own safety. In September, Wojciech Klukowski, a 58-year-old medical doctor, and his friends organized a civic militia group of about 50 men and women of various ages, and called it the National Guard. They practised skirmishes and shooting, with the aim of becoming citizen-soldiers.
“We do not feel fully safe,” Klukowski said. “Many people ... want to be trained to defend their homes, their work places, their families.”