The Polish Government is sending a printed booklet with advice on preparing for emergencies such as nuclear, chemical and biological attacks to all 17 million homes in the country.
The booklet contains information on coping with air attacks, use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, terrorist threats as well as sections on natural threats such as fire, flood and crowd safety.
Published by the defence and interior ministries together with the government’s security centre (RCB), it is costing the taxpayer €7 million. In its introduction it argues that Poland is facing growing threats of “disinformation, cyberattacks, hybrid threats and sabotage” for which Russia is blamed by name.
It also argues: “The war beyond our eastern border in Ukraine impacts our sense of security too” and therefore the country has to prepare to cope with military situations and attacks on infrastructure and civilian buildings.
The booklet was originally published online in August last year and its postal roll-out is to be completed by the end of January.
It lists “10 commandments” for safety and security. These include: “Preparing enough home supplies to last for three days as well as a first-aid kit and identity cards for children and senior citizens; checking where the nearest shelter is; and assembling an evacuation backpack.”
Secretary of State of the Ministry of National Defence, Cezary Tomczyk, in the centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk is responsible for the booklet’s roll-out. He told reporters that people should take the booklet seriously.
“Everyone should read it, talk to their children, to their family,” he said.
Since the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine, Poland has been seeking to improve both its military and civil readiness for emergency war-type situations.
Thanks to actions taken by the previous Conservative (PiS) government, between 2015 and 2023 Poland’s armed forces expanded to more than 200,000 troops, including the recently created territorial army forces and reservists.
A new law on civil defence was adopted two years ago and has introduced mandatory training for officials and updated rules for managing critical infrastructure.
The country, though, is still well short of the sort of preparedness that Finland has had for years. The Scandinavian nation has 800,000 people to call upon in a potential wartime emergency.
Security expert Marcin Samsel has been critical of the government’s booklet, telling Polish daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna: “People are being told what to do but too often without a clear explanation of why.”
Samsel also highlighted conflicting information such as one passage in which people are advised to keep their car fuelled in readiness for a possible evacuation and then just down the page they are told to limit the use of a car during a crisis to ensure roads are kept clear for the military and emergency services.
In December, the interior ministry launched a website that allows people to find their nearest shelter in times of war or other emergencies.
The website has been examined by Poland’s popular Youtube broadcaster Kanał Zero whose reporter visited several proposed shelter sites listed by the government. The reporter found them in many cases to be inaccessible; people at many sites were unaware that they had been designated potential shelters in an emergency.
In case of a nuclear-missile attack, the population would likely have less than 20 minutes warning and in the case of an attack from closer range that time could be down to just five minutes, according to experts.
It is unlikely that there would be any warning of a chemical or biological weapons attack.
