Ukraine's neighbor Poland to test resilience to attack

WARSAW — Poland will hold an exercise this year to test its resilience to a "crisis" like the conflict in neighboring Ukraine, President Bronislaw Komorowski said yesterday.

Komorowski spoke to reporters during an annual meeting of army commanders and the defense minister that examines Poland's defense potential and outlines key security tasks.

He said the nation needs to raise its defense potential in the face of threats, including the armed conflict that involves Poland's two neighbors, Russia and Ukraine.

Komorowski said that the "Country 2015" exercise will be held this year to test military and general crisis management resilience to a "new type of crisis that we can see east of our borders," in Ukraine. He gave no details of the exercise.

Concerned over its security, Poland is appealing to citizens aged between 18 and 50 to go through military training, but is also hosting numerous international and NATO military exercises, with the participation of some 10,000 foreign troops this year. Poland has a professional army of some 100,000 troops and some 20,000 reservists. A draft system inherited from the communist times was abolished in 2009.

The army leadership meeting was held at the Nation Stadium, as a test of the location that is to host the 2016 NATO summit.

Germany's Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen was a special guest.