Experts: Better prepare for war in your own home than run where you will

They shared valuable cognition with residents:
Gen. Leon Komornicki – General of the Polish Army Division;
Marek Wakezdzi – Strategy&Future/Civil Defense;
Paweł Mateńczuk “Naval” – b. operator JW GROM, Plenipotentiary of the Minister of National Defence.

“Free workshops are part of a programme of civilian protection and public resilience,” said Kazimierz Barczyk, co-host of the meeting, the president of the Association of Municipalities and Countys of Małopolska.

- “Be Ready!” is simply a task that was created to know how to behave in various situations of crisis. Each specified gathering is another brick to make appropriate emergency procedures," said Jakub Kosek, president of the City Council of Krakow, who took the patronage of the event and was 1 of the co-hosts.

The Prefield of War

Gen. Leon Komornicki said that the Polish political class was tasked with building a powerful defence strategy so that Russia would not dare attack us. – We should convince our allies to our state. We should build alliances based on those countries that are in contact with Russia, namely Sweden, Finland, the Baltic countries, Romania, Turkey. We should make a expression within NATO, in which our guarantees will be effectively secured," argued General Komornicki.

He besides pointed out that civilian defence is not only a substance of safety against military activities, and Polish society must be prepared for both military threats and misinformation. – Russia sets itself the goal of reaching consciousness to then manage it. Russia sews disinformation into a mix of information to disrupt our perception to divide Polish society to weaken it," emphasized Leon Komornicki. According to him, Russia has long waged an information war with us, in which we are already after the “step of demoralizing us”. “We accepted Russia’s communicative that it would not lead a war, so Europe disarmed. This phase Russia ended by starting a full-scale war in Ukraine – explained Gen. Komornicki. Now we are dealing with the next phase of information war – destruction, and its aim is to make Western states not ready to leave the comfort region and go to war with Russia. "The demolition phase can turn into a full-scale war erstwhile Russia attacks the Baltic countries in which it intensifys the hybrid war today," warned the military expert.

– This is not a classical war, due to the fact that Russia is attacking civilian targets to undermine the readiness to defend its state. So we request an army, alliances and a resilient society. Russia's goal is to weaken the morale of society now, so we have a prefield of war – added Kazimierz Barczyk

Marek Wadzisz emphasized that the essence of civilian protection is awareness of the threat. – The basis is what we have in mind, how we are able to respond to crisis situations, how we think about the threat, how we respond in stress. We will not learn that, we do not know precisely how to behave, but it is worth preparing to reduce the hazard – said the expert Strategy&Future/Civil Defense.

Family endurance Plan

He warned against the implementation, in a situation of martial law, of the script "I take my household to Spain and I leave". According to him, specified action will be risky and alternatively unrealistic, even due to the possible closure of airports, roads or borders. Instead, he encouraged us to read the brochures on preparing for the threat of war and preparing a household endurance plan. – The goal is to survive, so we gotta answer ourselves whether we are better off in a acquainted environment or better solution is to escape. The improvement of the household plan is not a large task, it can be written on 1 part of paper, and the intellectual mechanics will make us feel more assured – explained Marek Wakez.

He added that in the event of the outbreak of the war, we would be faced with a transitional period in which public services did not function. And that's the time to prepare. How long is it? “The Finns talk about 72 hours, Swedes – 7 days, British – 2 weeks”, the expert said. – In my opinion, it is best to prepare for the endurance of this period in your own home, in your own environment, possibly in friends who have a home in the suburb – you gotta choose specified a place, prepare them – it is better than going in an unknown direction – he argued.

How to prepare?

The most crucial thing is water, without it, we can't last for more than 3 days, without food, you can even last a month. The basic water standard is 3 litres per individual for consumption, 2 litres for individual hygiene. – safety is not the most important, they are important, but there is no danger that Russia will dominate airspace, so there will be no carpet raids, There will be point attacks, so you request to have shelters, but in centres like Kraków I would not make precedence of shelters. Water supplies, backups and rolling stock for water supply in crisis situations are more important," said Marek Wakez.

The second thing is communication. erstwhile there is no electricity, it is worth having power banks. – In Ukraine it is not so that the current is not 2 weeks old, there are temporary shutdowns, and erstwhile the current is again you can charge the telephone and power bank," said the expert.

Another component of preparation is making food and medicine supplies. “We know for ourselves what medicines we take, how frequently and ourselves we gotta take care of their supplies,” warned Marek Wakez and. he suggested that stores of medicines accumulate for a small longer period of time, due to the fact that interruptions in their supply may be much longer than interruptions in the supply of electricity or water.

Finally, it is worth preparing yourself an evacuation backpack with the most essential items, so that in the event of an evacuation service ordered by you, you do not waste time.

How to respond to an emergency

Paweł Mateńczuk "Naval" stated that first of all we request to know what we are preparing for. In his opinion, there is no answer to the question of erstwhile the war will be, but we cannot say that there will be no war either. He besides pointed out that the war in Ukraine is another in the past of humanity, in which a powerful individual cannot cope with a tiny country. – Let us prepare for the war in Ukraine to last our full adult life – warned Naval and said that in Poland we have no right to be amazed by the possible attack, due to the fact that we know who is the opponent, we have the enemy and we know that we must act today.

Former JW GROM operator advised to find a safe place in an emergency situation – after something happened. The second thing to think about is the anticipation of evacuation from where we took shelter. “It’s better to retreat twice than to die once,” he argued.

Paweł Mateńczuk besides stated that in the war in Ukraine both Russians and Ukrainians frequently die from their own mines. The situation is changing so rapidly and the fighting soldiers are changing that the military does not control where the mines are left. Plus, they're dropped off by drones, you don't even gotta contact them to explode, due to the fact that a mine in the form of a bottle of soda or toys reacts to it erstwhile individual approaches it, besides distinguishes whether it's an animal or a man.

Each associate of the workshop received a brochure from the Association “Be Ready” with basic information on how to prepare for threats and how to behave in the area of armed combat.

Another workshop in the “Be Ready!” series is scheduled for 13 November 2025. This time, the debate will be held under the motto "Chinese Dragon vs. Wawelski Dragon – Kraków against the economical war of worlds. Whose jobs are at hazard of liquidation ....’ Place of workshop – Auditorium Maximum of Jagiellonian University at 33 Krupnicza Street in Krakow. Start – 6 p.m. Participation in the gathering is free, but you gotta download a free ticket and registry at www.badzgotow.pl.

Text: Bartosz Lipszyc/ manager of the Office of the Association of Minorities and Districts