Poland to Give All Adult Males Military Training

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, speaking to the nation’s parliament on Friday, announced a large-scale plan to provide all adult males with military training.

• The program aims to boost Poland’s number of soldiers from 200,000 to 500,000.
• It is designed to be a reserve system based on the Swiss model, where it is compulsory for every male to serve in the military or a different civilian service; women can volunteer if they choose.
• It is expected to be operational by the end of this year.

Rearming: Poland is already the largest defense spender in nato proportional to its overall economy, devoting 4 percent of its gross domestic product to defense last year. But Tusk expressed concern that Poland’s military capabilities would be insufficient to protect itself if Ukraine were defeated by Russia. He said Poland would “find itself in a much more difficult geopolitical situation.”

Poland is not alone in its plan to increase military spending.

• On Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a plan that will mobilize €800 billion (us$867.8 billion) for defense spending in Europe.
• The same day, German chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz said Germany’s parliament would vote to change its constitution to remove spending limits on defense and infrastructure.

Prophetic perspective: The Bible prophesies that fear of Russian aggression will motivate Europe to become an independent military superpower.

To learn more, read our Trends article “Why the Trumpet Watches Europe’s Push Toward a Unified Military.”