Polish General: The return of compulsory military service in Poland is inevitable

The return of compulsory conscription service in It is inevitable for Poland, since this is the only way to bring the number of reservists to 7 million, Major General Maciej Klish, commander of the operational forces of the Polish Armed Forces, said on the Polsat TV channel.

"I will answer as a soldier. Yes, I think that the return of (compulsory) military service is inevitable," he said.

Klish cited Finland as an example, where, with a population of about 5.5 million, there are almost 1 million reservists. The Polish armed forces number almost 200 thousand military and more than 300 thousand reservists. At the same time, the country's population, according to the 2021 census, is slightly less than 38 million people.

Klish notes that a soldier "can't be done in three days," and basic training should last 40 days.

Poland abandoned universal military service in 2010, switching to voluntary contract service.

After the outbreak of hostilities on In Ukraine in 2022, Warsaw stepped up the strengthening of defense. Former Defense Minister Marius Blaszczak promised that Poland would have the strongest ground forces among European NATO countries. However, he did not see the need to return compulsory conscription.

His successor Vladislav Kosinyak-Kamysh adheres to a similar position. At the end of March last year, he said that there were no plans to return universal military service, noting that it had been suspended, not eliminated.

At the same time, in early March, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the creation of a training program for military personnel and reservists for possible combat operations.

"By the end of the year, we want to prepare a model in which every adult man will be ready for war, and that this reserve will be sufficient to repel possible threats," he said during his speech in parliament.

Chief of the Polish General Staff Weslav Kukula explained that the purpose of the program is to increase the number and quality of the army, noting that there are "a lot" of reservists now, but their average age is about 45 years.