Poland launches new military training program, aims to train 400,000 in 2026

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — Polish soldiers stand and talk during a media tour organized by the country's military to demonstrate the security measures at the Polish-Belarusian border near Bialowieza, Poland, January 10, 2025. REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki

WARSAW  -  Poland will roll out a new military training programme this month as part of a broader plan to train around 400,000 people in 2026, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

Galvanized by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Poland now spends more of its GDP on defence than any other NATO member. It has grown into the alliance's third-largest military, with 216,000 personnel, and plans to expand its forces by nearly a third over the next decade.

Dubbed by Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz as "the largest defence training in Polish history", the programme "At Readiness" will be voluntary and open to all citizens - from schoolchildren to working adults, companies, and seniors.

The programme will offer a basic security course, survival training, medical instruction, and cyber-hygiene classes.

"In November and December alone (...) we will train about 20,000 people in individual training, but the total number..., in terms of all forms of training, is about 100,000 people," Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk told a conference. 

The ministry plans next year to train approximately 400,000 people "individually, in groups, as part of 'Education with the Army', reserve training and voluntary compulsory military service", Tomczyk added. 

The chief of Poland's General Staff, Wieslaw Kukula, said the programme had two primary goals - to strengthen the resilience of citizens and communities, and to boost the availability, readiness, and capacity of reserves.

The programme was first announced by Prime Minister Donald Tusk in March to "build an army of reservists" amid heightened security concerns following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

(Reporting by Barbara Erling, Pawel FlorkiewiczEditing by Gareth Jones // REUTERS)