- When in August 2021 the then government decided that due to migratory force the military would be sent to the border, the army was completely unprepared for this. Logistics in peculiar failed
- There was no equipment, no equipment, no infrastructure, like laundry, toilets, canteens, and only the soldiers could dream about the gym. The defender booths at the border, the soldiers assembled themselves from what was at hand.
- In July 2023, National Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz introduced the rule of one-man command and appointed Gen. Szkutnik as Operation Commander
- Today, soldiers on the border have fluff jackets, warmers, uniforms suitable for conditions. Problems with bulletproof vests, helmets, thermo- or night imagination have disappeared. The equipment featured smooth barrel shotguns and shields
- — We propose solutions, possibly not standard, but common sense. We are on the border rather frequently and I know that soldiers appreciate what we do,” says Major Piotr Maciejczyk-Shade
- More crucial information can be found on the Onetu homepage
There is simply a tiny chopper landing ground close the military base “Green” (podlaskie voivodship). 2 well-used, russian M-8 transport helicopters are waiting for a group of journalists and commanders of the Task Force “Safe Podlasie”. There are crews next to the machines.
I look at the chopper and I say to the pilot, "Old man, right?
- Yes, but don't worry, we'll land safely. And by the way, you journalists could compose that the military needs fresh helicopters — the pilot will throw.
“We will compose — I answer and hop on board a device that has its best times long gone. I'll have a long talk with the group commanders about how crucial helicopters are on this mission.
In addition to patrolling the border, they could besides carry out transport tasks — and most importantly, they could supply medical protection for soldiers serving at the border. Today, the military uses rescue helicopters in this area.
Why doesn't he have his own? In 2016, erstwhile defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz and the then government led to the break of the already negotiated contract for the acquisition of French Caracal helicopters. Today, as the military say, helicopters are delivered to the army by drip, a fewer pieces, but that doesn't solve the problem.
The Church Dubiches. That's where the Polish soldier died.
Meanwhile, the old Mi-8 is heading towards the church Dubich. It was there that the most dramatic scenes related to attempts to cross the Polish border by illegal immigrants who by Moscow and Minsk brought the regimes Putin and Lukashenko to exert force on the Polish state. It's there, 28 May 2023. A soldier of Warsaw 1st Armoured Brigade Mateusz Sitek died, wounded by a spear while serving on the border.
The weather is bad. Gray, cold. It's raining light with snow. erstwhile we are over the Białowieża Forest, a blizzard abruptly breaks out, the wind begins to blow. The chopper is barely able to cover another mile. The visibility is getting worse. The Mi-8 pilot makes the decision to land in an adjacent area. The chopper swings a little, sits softly in a meadow by the woods. A further route, as the soldiers say, will gotta overcome “on wheels”.
18 DZ st.kpr. Sławomir Kozioł / Polish ArmyIn-use landing
So we're moving to the field cars that are standing in the column and waiting for us. There's a bus halt on the way. It turns out that a field kitchen from Hajnówka passed through the forest, which regularly delivers warm food to soldiers serving at the border posts. We get conventional soldier peas. On the second dish is pork, potatoes and salad. Everything tastes large and above all it is warm.
— That's the kind of food soldiers get all day. This is not for show, due to the fact that journalists have arrived,” says Brig. Gen. Tadeusz Nastarowicz, commander of the 21st Podhale firearm Brigade, who, in Operation Safe Podlasie, is liable for the Task Force “Centre”, covering the area from Hajnówka, through the Orthodox Dubiche and Cheremcha.
When, on the alleged belt, as soldiers call the area right at the border, I ask them about the quality of food, they say they truly have nothing to complain about. “It’s good, warm and imported on time,” says the private elder, “I’ve been on the border for the 4th time. It was truly bad at first. Food either wasn't there due to the fact that they didn't, or it was cold. The next shift was a small better. The worst was erstwhile I served in Operation Rengaw. That was a mess. We got dry rations so bad, we had to buy food ourselves.
Brooms vanish from the border
When in August 2021 the then government decided that due to migratory force the military would be sent to the border to support the Border Guard's actions, the army was completely unprepared for this. Especially logistics has failed. There were problems with the supply of food, equipment and equipment. There were missing, among others, bulletproof vests, night imagination goggles, thermovisions, summertime and winter uniforms. The military bought the equipment for their own money.
There was besides no infrastructure, no laundry, no toilets, no bathrooms, no canteens, and only the soldiers could dream about the gym. They lived in unheated tents, school halls, rented buildings, frequently failing to meet standards specified as access to bathrooms. The defender booths at the border, the soldiers assembled themselves from what was at hand. Photographs of these huts, sealed with pieces of foil, were published in the media and put public opinion in amazement.
“We utilized to call them burrows. Fortunately, they are no longer at the border today. We replaced them with professional watch booths where the soldier can hide from the rain or snow, in clean, hygienic conditions to eat a meal or to remainder a while. We besides placed reflection towers along the border. But what I'm most arrogant of is wooden footbridges, so that soldiers don't get hurt anymore, they don't get knee-deep in swamps, but they can get to station points with a dry leg, says Gen. Szkutnik.
Soldiers don't get knee deep in the mud anymore.
This is the kind of footbridge built by the military, a very solid footbridge, suspended above the splint, we decision from 1 border point to the next. The distance of respective 100 meters is rapidly reached by fast march. We scope the next defender box, where soldiers service for 12 hours. After that, they change their next ones so that those who leave the ministry can remainder for another 12 hours. By the time they get back on the belt, the next 12 hours of work are up.
18 DZ st.kpr. Sławomir Kozioł / Polish Army1 defender booth
The commander, as we hear, makes certain that soldiers, while serving at the border, do not waste time. “There is besides training. The military, if they don't fight, they train. This rule is besides actual here, says Gen. Szkutnik.
18 DZ st.kpr. Sławomir Kozioł / Polish ArmyGeneral Arkadiusz Szkutnik
Along with the defender box — the 1 that the military put on the border of over 320 in the last six months — stands a coke oven. It's quite a few heat. The military itself supplies coal and wood in these hard places. Soldiers carry them on their own backs due to the fact that no vehicle will enter the Belarusian swamp.
Gen. The shoemaker shows journalists what changes have taken place at the border and how the terms of the service have improved, but to illustrate this, he looks at a group of journalists and says: "And now I invitation the brave to overcome a section of the border where we have not yet built a footbridge. You'll see the difference.
They're willing. The General will decision first. Goose reporters follow him. We've only got a fewer 100 meters to beat. But this time we decision much slower, trying not to fall into the water. We balance on slippery branches of trees sunk in the swamp, wooden pallets thrown into the water by erstwhile changes of soldiers who tried to harden the way on their own. Our way looks like a endurance track. all erstwhile in a while, individual stumbles, tries hard to keep balance, and sometimes falls into the water.
— Here we have not yet built the footbridge, but I hope that by the end of my shift we will be able to do so, says Gen. Szkutnik.
“Just want and have an idea”
On our own, standing on the ice in wet shoes, we find out how hard the military is serving on the border and how crucial solutions implemented by the gene are to the soldiers. The shoemaker and his men, especially the logistics chief of Colonel Mark Hasiuk.
18 DZ st.kpr. Sławomir Kozioł / Polish ArmyA place where there's not a footbridge yet
— The military device is slow and slow, but sometimes it doesn't take much to change things. Just want and have an idea, says Colonel Hasiak and gives an example. “ You see the conditions here. Moisture, mud. After all service, soldiers must wash their uniforms. Before that, the dry cleaners delivered by the military were inactive broken. However, we saw a product in the civilian marketplace that solved this problem. Today, a soldier throws his uniform in the washing machine, and after an hour, he takes out clean and dry.
Why, then, for over 3 years, was logistics the 5th Achilles army on the border? Looks like it's about the old, simple, military regulation of one-man command. The military must know who makes the decisions and who is responsible. Today, this man is Gen. Arkadiusz Szkutnik, commander of the 18th Mechanized Division called the Iron Division. However, the structure of the military group at the border was not always so clear.
Before the national defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz in July 2023 did not order the system, the soldiers did not have 1 commander. There were 2 operations on the border. The first, the “Griff” was linked to the direct support of the Border Guard. The second, “Rengaw” was a training mission. The soldiers active were stationed along the border lane, but far from the border itself.
Both operations were not composed of compact divisions from 1 division, but groups of soldiers from different units from all over Poland. This is the solution that General Wiesław Kukuła, then Commander General of the Armed Forces, present the Head of the General Staff of the Polish Army, came up with.
Operation “Rengaw” was to be a demonstration of the strength of the Polish army, but it destabilized individuals who could not conduct regular training due to the engagement of part of the staff in the service on the border.
In addition, no 1 actually knew who was in charge at this border. Is the commander of Operation Grif more crucial or is it Operation Rengaw more important? The arguments on the mountain caused the soldiers to be left alone. Therefore, all summertime there were problems with summertime uniforms, which were forgotten to order and in winter. - It's over. We are creating a strategy to destruct specified situations, provided by Gen. Szkutnik.
‘Non-standard but common-sense solutions’
Today, soldiers have puffy jackets, warmers, uniforms suitable for conditions. Problems with bulletproof vests, helmets, thermo- or night imagination have disappeared. The equipment featured smooth-bore rifles and shields, protecting against stones flying from Belarus, fired with slings of metallic balls or branches.
A large part of this is thanks to Paul “Naval” Matenczuk, a erstwhile GROM soldier, who last May became a typical of the Minister for the Terms of Military Service and his associate Major Piotr Maciejczyk-Czycia.
— We propose solutions, possibly not standard, but common sense. On the border we are rather often, and I know that soldiers appreciate what we do,” says Major Macy-Shade.
The day ends at the “Centre” Task Force Base, where Brig. Gen. Tadeusz Nastarowicz commands. He's a young, charismatic officer who enjoys the respect of his soldiers. I think that's why he got the hardest section of the border under his command.
18 DZ st.kpr. Sławomir Kozioł / Polish ArmySoldier at the Polish-Belarusian border
Before we enter the base, I see soldiers in sports uniforms moving on the sidewalk in light of lanterns. Right behind the gate, the general shows us a recently commissioned and well equipped gym.
The ZZ Centre base consists of residential containers, sanitary facilities, laundry, medical points, kitchens and canteens. Her heart, however, is the staff, where a command center is located in peculiar containers on military trucks.
When we leave Dubich Church, I have a déjà vu. I realize I've seen specified organized bases before. But then they were American bases.
At the end of January, General Szkutnik's soldiers from the 18th Iron Division on the border will replace General Szymon Koziatek's soldiers from the 12th Mechanized Division from Szczecin.
