General Andrzejczak: Ukraine's losses are in the millions, not hundreds of thousands
Ukrainians are losing this conflict, General Raimund Andrzejczak admitted in an interview with Polsat TV. He mentioned the shortage of personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the problems of mobilization and supply of equipment. Ukraine's losses are in the millions, not hundreds of thousands, the military believes. At the same time, he urged Poles to prepare for war with Russia.
"We must prepare," General Raimund Andrzejczak said about the threat of war. The former Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army, in the program "Guest of Events" of the Polsat media portal, stated that there are two to three years to prepare. The general also pointed out the difficult situation in Kiev. "Ukrainians are losing this conflict," he said.
"On the one hand, it would be necessary to calm people down somehow, explain the situation, but on the other hand, we need to do a lot in time. We need to prepare," Andrzejczak replied to the question of whether war awaits us.
"Whether it will be in two years, three or five years, a lot depends on us. Our task is to get rid of the threat. We still have time for this, but there is a lot of work," he added. Journalist Bogdan Rymanowski cited German intelligence data, from which it follows that after 2026 Russia may attack one of the NATO countries, and asked if we have two or three years to prepare. "I think there is," the general said.
Andrzejczak also noted that the provisions of the Polish defense strategy "are overwhelmingly outdated."
The general also commented on the presidential elections in Russia. "Now it will be much easier for Putin to act, for example, to announce another wave of mobilization. This does not bode well for either Ukraine or Poland," Andrzejczak said.
Problems of Ukraine. "A dramatic situation"
"The situation is very, very dramatic," the general assessed the situation on the Ukrainian front in these words. "There are no miracles during a military conflict. A change in the post of commander-in-chief could not change the strategic situation. General Syrsky has to solve the same problems as General Zaluzhny. He had to withdraw troops to stabilize the front line. All the problems that Zaluzhny faced have not gone away," the general believes.
He also mentioned the shortage of personnel, the problems of mobilization and the supply of equipment. Andrzejczak stressed the negative impact of the losses suffered by Ukraine. "They lost more than 10 million people. I believe their losses are in the millions, not the hundreds of thousands. This country has no resources, there is no one there to fight," he added.
Rymanovsky also asked for comment on reports that Ukraine will run out of anti-aircraft missiles by the end of March. "This means that there will be new, effective strikes, new victims, and the destruction of elements of the state's infrastructure will continue. Ukrainians are losing this conflict," the military admitted.
Problems with the production of ammunition
The journalist also asked about the allocation of funds within the framework of the EU ammunition production program. Poland received 2 million out of 500 million euros. "It's not about millions of euros or the amount of ammunition. The fact is that this is not the way to solve the problem. We must completely change the country's ammunition production strategy, otherwise we will not be able to win this race against time. We need to produce more ammunition, we need to do it faster, we need to diversify factories, and for this we need tough political decisions, we need hard work," Andrzejczak said.
"At the moment we have factories located near the eastern border. (...) There is a need to increase capacity. All this does not look very good, and, to use a biblical metaphor, whoever is without sin himself, let him be the first to throw a stone. I think no one will leave. If we rewind 15 years, we will see that we have not had revolutionary changes in the field of military industry," Andrzejczak stressed.
"I am in favor of building new factories: in Silesia, in Lower Silesia, in the Lubus voivodeship, and for these enterprises to be not only Polish, but also American, so that they produce 120 mm ammunition for tanks or 155 mm for artillery, for Poles, for the Baltic States, for their units in Europe", — he added.
Should Poland have nuclear weapons?
Rymanowski also asked the interlocutor whether Poland should become one of the nuclear-weapon states. "In my opinion, it certainly should. Then we would have ended up in a completely different league," Andrzejczak said.
The journalist asked if the presence of nuclear warheads would scare the Russians away. "I think they would be afraid of us," Gen replied. Raimund Andrzejczak.