General
Wieslaw Kukula, chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces,
speaks during a news conference following National Security Council
meeting in Warsaw after an unidentified aerial object entered Polish
airspace, Poland, December 29, 2023. Dawid Zuchowicz / Agencja
Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
WARSAW,
July 10 (Reuters) - Poland needs to prepare its soldiers for all-out
conflict, its armed forces chief of staff said on Wednesday, as the
country boosts the number of troops on its border with Russia and
Belarus.
Poland's
relations with Russia and its ally Belarus have deteriorated sharply
since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into neighbouring Ukraine
on Feb. 24, 2022, starting a war that is still being fought.
"Today,
we need to prepare our forces for full-scale conflict, not an
asymmetric-type conflict," army chief of staff General Wieslaw Kukula
told a press conference.
"This
forces us to find a good balance between the border mission and
maintaining the intensity of training in the army," he said.
Speaking
at the same event, deputy defence minister Pawel Bejda said that as of
August, the number of troops guarding Poland's eastern border would be
increased to 8,000 from the current 6,000, with an additional rearguard
of 9,000 able to step up within 48 hours notice.
In May, Poland announced details of "East Shield",
a 10 billion zloty ($2.5 billion) programme to beef up defences along
its border with Belarus and Russia, which it plans to complete the plans
by 2028.
The
border with Belarus has been a flashpoint since migrants started
flocking there in 2021 after Belarus opened travel agencies in the
Middle East offering a new unofficial route into Europe - a move the
European Union said was designed to create a crisis.
Warsaw
has ramped up defence spending to more that 4% of its economic output
this year in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Kukula
also said the current high interest from candidates to join the army
posed a dilemma over whether to take in more recruits than budgeted for
at the expense of military equipment procurement, especially as he said
interest was expected to start declining sharply from 2027.
Reporting by Karol Badohal, Editing by Angus MacSwan