Poland continuing with its actions of providing support to Ukraine politically and economically has started to upgrade its own military sphere as well. Poland has been accepting refugees since the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces in February 2022. There are about 1.3 million Ukrainians living in Poland as refugees. Poland was amongst the first countries to show up as a helping hand to Ukraine.
|| By Tanishq Mohan
Recently on May 15, the country received the first batch of HIMARS air-defense system.
HIMARS is an abbreviation that stands for High Mobility Rocket System. This is a dynamic system capable of firing an estimate of 5 to 7 guided missiles in a row. This system was demanded as an immediate necessity by Ukraine as early as in July 2022. Ukrainian President “Volodymyr Zelensky” had said that HIMARS changed course of the war.
Why Poland needs it?
Although Poland is not an immediate neighbor of Russia but it shares its border-line with the Kaliningrad region. Kaliningrad is a very small Russian territory lying between Lithuania and Poland. Geographically, Kaliningrad is the westernmost part of Russia. Thus, Poland shares a 232 kilometres long border with this Russian-governed territory. Kaliningrad region can be accessed by Russia either by air or through the Baltic sea.
Poland shares a direct border with Belarus which has been an all-weather partner of Russia. Belarusian President “Aleksander Lukashenko” has referred to Russia as the ‘big brother’ at the international level on various occasions. The relations are to the extent that Belarus allows Russia to station its missile launchersin its territory if Russia wills.
Thus, Poland has got reasons to get better acceptance upon receiving HIMARS from the USA from the international community.
Although it is not an immediate step. The NATO country had signed a deal for 20 HIMARS with the USback in 2019 and the first set of HIMARS has been delivered on May 15, 2023. The Minister of National Defence of Poland-“Mariusz Blaszczak”mentioned HIMARS would “strengthen the Polish army on the eastern flank of Poland and the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Alliance”
The reaction of the Russian government to this development remains dubious as of now.
