Poland is a country that receives many refugees and supplies weapons to support Ukraine, after the Russian invasion.
The conservative government has also introduced new laws to prepare the population for an aggression from Russia and invested huge sums in its defense. In the schools, students learn basic weapon handling.
Teenagers learn to shoot
TV4 Nyheterna’s foreign sports reporter Jona Källgren has met 14-year-old Pavel in the Polish city of Lodz, where the students are practicing shooting with air rifles for the first time.
– Everyone knows what the situation with Ukraine and Russia looks like right now, and we don’t know if it won’t be the same with Poland, says Pavel.
In addition to learning basic weapon handling, students must also learn first aid and have lessons on how to act in the event of an attack on the countryside.
Huge investment
Poland will soon go far beyond NATO’s goal of spending two percent of GDP on defense.
– Right now, the government’s target for this year is three percent of the gross national product. But there are also plans to go up to four percent of GDP, says Tomasz Smura, security policy expert in Warsaw.
See the report from Poland in the player above.