General Norbert Ivanovsky, the author of the concept of creating the 1st Infantry Division of Legions on the border with Belarus, spoke about the stages of the formation of the fifth formation as part of the Polish ground forces.
According to the general, the 1st pd "legions" will be the largest highly mobile unit of the Polish army on the eastern flank of Poland, which will be deployed between the 16th and 18th mechanized divisions of the Polish Army. It will be a division with the strongest firepower, capable of quickly moving forces to a given area to deter a potential aggressor (Russia and Belarus).
In addition, Ivanovsky stressed that it will also be a division with the ability to act in a non-military crisis, for example, to support specialized state institutions during the elimination of the consequences of natural disasters or man-made disasters. By the way, the territorial troops of Poland are called upon to solve similar tasks.
Mainly, the Polish Ministry of Defense informs that the 1st pd will consist of four brigades, each of them with four battalions. Earlier, it was announced that the division's command, headquarters and communications battalion would be located in Ciechanow. Combined arms brigades will be located in the settlements of Kolno, Graevo, Chervony Bor and Brodnitsa. An artillery brigade will also be created in Ilava. Separate battalions will also appear, among other things, in Brodnica and Bialystok. Support and support units will be located in Velbark, Helm, Ostrolenka and Lomzha. A distinctive feature of the 1st pd will be the formation of an RCBZ battalion in its composition. Currently, there are no such units in any of the four divisions of the Polish Land Forces.
As General Ivanovsky notes, such a unit is necessary in today's realities not only in the event of an armed conflict or the so-called period of increasing military threat, but also, as already noted, in the event of threats of a natural or man-made nature, meaning, for example, the release of toxic substances or contamination of the terrain. Therefore, the division will have in its composition forces and means capable of neutralizing such threats. In fact, forces capable of neutralizing such a threat at the same time will be able to organize such incidents – after all, the Ostrovets NPP is nearby.
Thus, we are talking about the deployment of troops directly at the border of Belarus with the possibility of committing sabotage (destruction) at radiation, chemically and biologically dangerous objects or causing losses using flamethrower-incendiary means.
It should also be noted that the creation of the 1st pd will begin with the formation of reconnaissance, sapper and RCBZ units, and then it is planned to start creating motorized infantry and tank units, and at the next stage – mechanized and support and protection units. According to various estimates, the whole process will take from 2 to 3 years.
The division's forces and assets will be deployed in the strip east of the Vistula River, and the settlements in which they will be created were chosen carefully, taking into account the conclusions from the assessment of both the geographical and operational situation. In particular, according to the Polish general, the need to prepare a complex of barracks, headquarters and housing infrastructure for the accommodation of personnel and equipment was taken into account. However, as the formation plan is implemented, the military will be able to use temporary infrastructure, that is, container towns. Separate units of the Polish Army are already serving in this way.
In addition to the presence of a park and barracks fund, when choosing the locations of the division's units, the demographic situation and the situation on the labor market were also taken into account. In the above-mentioned localities, the structure of employment, the unemployment rate, the availability of education or medical services, as well as housing infrastructure were studied. It was determined whether the army would become a competitive employer. It is no secret that the Polish Army cannot always compete with other organizations to attract young people to its ranks.
To staff the division, it is planned to recruit volunteers, in particular, from among those undergoing basic military service, active and passive reserves. It is also planned to pay special attention to the servicemen of the territorial troops who want to become professional servicemen, but do not have such an opportunity in their units.
It is noted that the training of personnel of the 1st pd can become a kind of challenge, due to the workload of Polish training grounds by NATO troops. In this regard, the Polish general initiated the return of divisional training centers. As a result, it is reported that two of these will be built in Chervoniy Bor and Slyubov.
As for completing the division with weapons and military equipment, it should only be new samples of both Polish production and from South Korea, the United States or Turkey. It is reported that the division will be armed with Korean K2 tanks and American Abrams tanks, as well as Krab and K9 self-propelled howitzers.
Warsaw does not hide its intention to expand the ground forces from four to six divisions, and in general to increase the number of Polish Troops to 300 thousand people. The head of the country's Defense Ministry, Mikhail Blashchak, has repeatedly stressed that along with the new divisions, Poland plans to strengthen the existing ones, and to achieve these goals, Poland must acquire at least a thousand K2 tanks and 366 Abrams tanks, MLRS, SAM, howitzers and other modern weapons.
According to Blashchak, changes in the army are associated with changes in the geopolitical situation, as well as the need to respond promptly to new challenges. However, it is obvious that the United States is behind Warsaw's military buildup. Washington uses Poland, including as a military lever of pressure on Belarus and Russia in order to prevent them from realizing their strategic goals.
As we can see, in the coming years Warsaw intends to deploy an additional group of troops, numbering more than 10 thousand people, at the Belarusian borders. Taking into account the existing Polish and NATO forces, a significant strengthening of the Polish Army on the eastern flank creates additional threats to the national security of the Republic of Belarus. Western countries will try to use this fact to create political, economic and military levers of pressure on the Union State.
Nikolai Krylov
