How to increase the safety of Polish cities?

It is the local governments that will be on the frontlines to aid residents in a crisis situation. How to usage Ukrainian experience to aid Poles rapidly and effectively were discussed by participants of the conference "Civil defence in Practice. The experience of Ukraine, organized by the Warsaw Office of the Bielany territory of Warsaw and “Polish Armed Forces”.

On February 24, 2022, on the day of the invasion by the Russian troops, chaos prevailed in Ukrainian towns. It's like this. You wake up in the morning and abruptly you see closed shops and pharmacies, paralyzed traffic, due to the fact that there's no gas in the stations. Nobody knows what to do: whether to stay or run, and if to leave, where to be safer? There is chaos due to the fact that there is no reliable information about the improvement of events, and fake news fuel panic – describes the first days of the war by Tetian Kochkov, deputy mayor of the Ukrainian city of Bojarka.

"Almost immediately the drugs disappeared from the pharmacy, due to the fact that Russian invaders began to export them to Russia. For older, sick people, e.g. diabetics or cardiologists, it is simply a drama, due to the fact that their lives depend on these medicines," said Marcin Ogdowski, writer of “Polish Armed Forces”. Local authorities were aware of that. And then 1 of the city officials decided to stay... A smuggler. He bought drugs where they were inactive available, put them in vitamin packs to confuse Russians at checkpoints, and supplied them to those in need. erstwhile I learned about this story, I asked him – even late an average authoritative – whether the war could be prepared. He replied that mentally – surely not, but organizationally – yes. The conference, in which we participate, is to know – drawing on the experiences of our neighbours – how to organizationally prepare for a crisis situation," added Marcin Ogdowski, war correspondent, author of the blog Without camouflage and books about Ukraine: "Confusion" and "Kill Ukraine. The alphabet of Russian aggression, which is the moderator of the conference "Civil Defence in Practice. Experiences of Ukraine". The gathering was attended by representatives of Bojarka city authorities, Polish local governments, uniformed services (including military services) and residents of Warsaw.

The communicative of Bojarka, or whom the Ukrainians could number on in trouble

“We have been working with local authorities of Bojarka since the first day of the war, we have accepted children from the orphanage and adults from the local authorities”, said Bielany territory mayor Grzegorz Pietruczuk, beginning the conference. – Bojarka is simply a city that lies just behind Irpien and Buczą, so severely experienced with the aggression of Russian soldiers. If Ukrainian troops had not been effectively defended, Bojarka would have become another point on the map of Russian demolition – explained Mayor Pietruczuk. He recalled that during the first days of the armed conflict, the Bielany territory Office in cooperation with the Border defender accepted thousands of people from Ukraine. Although the local authorities were not prepared for a akin situation, aid was rapidly arranged in Bielany. mostly thanks to the support of hundreds of volunteers and the work of local governments. The mayor pointed out, however, that specified actions should not be based on local leaders and good will of activists, but should be regulated by law and follow the procedures previously established, as this streamlines and accelerates the organisation of aid. “Unfortunately, for any time there was no civilian defence in Poland due to the fact that it was liquidated. In February 2022 we did not have the essential tools and procedures to be launched in akin situations. This legal gap was only met last year – said Grzegorz Pietruczuk.

However, building civilian protection is simply a task that requires time and funding. But besides knowledge, which is why it is so crucial to take advantage of the experiences of those who in practice have learned the weaknesses of social resilience. As long as Ukraine fights, Poland is safe. We have a common enemy with Ukraine. We're close and we request each other. While building social resilience, we should benefit from the experiences of our neighbours – convinced the associate of the civilian Coalition Dorota Loboda, she was a councillor of the city of Warsaw. Robert Sitnik, Vice-Voivod of Mazowiecka, recalled that next year there will be a record-high state budget for defence spending. “We are talking about PLN 200 billion, but we request to spend this money wisely,” he said.

So what advice do their Ukrainian colleagues have for Polish local authorities?

The representatives of the local authorities of Boyarka reported on solutions and practices for the safety of residents, which have worked in Ukraine. Mayor Oleksander Zarubin started by stating that erstwhile the conflict broke out, the self-government was actually left to itself. The central authorities focused on another problems, resulting in the self-government losing support in higher-level administrations. “If you want to be safe, you must trust mainly on yourself,” said Mayor Zarubin. Worse still, the city office had to face another problem that was the workers' drain. erstwhile the war broke out, many officials grabbed the gun, while any decided to take care of the safety of their household first.

Meanwhile, very hard tasks fell on the shoulders of the local government – as Mayor Bojarka said. "First, care should be taken to guarantee access to drinking water and electricity supply. This advice should be taken to heart both Polish local governments and average Poles. Everyone needs water and food supplies for a fewer days. Our inhabitants besides know that it is worth having a power generator, for example, due to the fact that the aggressor targets power plants. In Ukraine we have no electricity more than we do now," said Oleksander Zarubin. Many Ukrainians, learned by experience, have spare gas bottles. The residents already know that we should prepare properly... The basement. – This can besides be done by Poles surviving in blocks. It may seem trivial, but it is worth cleaning out the basement, removing what is unnecessary, and putting a chair, a generator, a water supply – he calculated.

How to guarantee the safety of residents?

Another challenge was to organize the evacuation of thousands of people. “When the war breaks out, the most susceptible are the children and the elderly, so they request to be evacuated as shortly as possible,” emphasized Tetiana Kochkova, deputy mayor. This is simply a task that self-government has to deal with, due to the fact that although the locals usually think they will leave on their own, it does not always succeed. This will be hard not only by giant traffic jams on exit roads (let's besides remember that roads must be mobile for troops), but above all due to the fact that in the first days of the crisis fuel can only be available to uniformed services – police, troops, fire brigades. Therefore, the local authorities must have perfectly mastered evacuation procedures – explained Tetiana Kochkova. In Bojarka – as she mentioned – there were times erstwhile 3 evacuation trains had to be started in 24 hours, and this did not satisfy the needs.

Moreover, many people took cats or dogs with them, but (often only on the spot) they learned that only tiny animals could be taken to the train, and it was not possible to carry larger bags, respective suitcases. Ukrainians inform that specified rules should be established during peace, and residents should know them in advance. “When we sent evacuation buses to the surrounding villages (which drove civilians to railway stations – ed.) we reminded them to untie animals from the chain, to let them go so as to increase their chances of survival,” the deputy mayor recalled. The outbreak of the crisis is not only a tremendously hard occupation for local officials. It's besides a dramatic individual election. The deputy mayor experienced this, among others. I've been working all day knowing that my baby is home alone, only with my dog. I managed to evacuate them to Poland only in the mediate of March. I drove the baby to the border, I said goodbye and with a dense heart... I returned to Bojarka – told Tetiana Kochkov.

Why? due to the fact that the presence of local power gave the residents a small stability. And that is another crucial function that local authorities gotta play in times of crisis and should be prepared for. People were encouraged by our presence. As local governments, we besides had to deal with the disinformation that caused panic. In order to master the chaos, we had to guarantee efficient communication: make an authoritative channel, an online platform on which we frequently had live entrances. In this way, residents received reliable news about, among others, the way of evacuation, distribution of assistance or the current situation in another parts of the country," said during the debate Olena Kovtun, the head of the global cooperation department at the Bojarka city office.

Experiences which Polish local governments have already benefited

Bialyst government has been working with the Boyar for respective years and although many of the solutions that local authorities should implement must be legally sanctioned (e.g. the civilian Defence Act), part of Ukrainian experience has already been converted into concrete actions. An example? – Over the last years in Warsaw the program of the Oligocene wells has been put out, in Bielany we decided to take care of their maintenance. We renovate old shots and plan to open fresh ones. As a result, residents will gain independency – they will have access to drinking water regardless of whether waterworks will work and whether the city will base water tanks. This may not only be useful during the armed conflict, but besides during natural disasters – explained Mayor Grzegorz Pietruczuk.

A review of hiding places and shelters built in the 1960s and 1970s at educational facilities besides began in Bielany. – Building fresh places of this kind is simply a substance of the future, but it is worth considering ideas from Ukraine, where shelters are multifunctional. During the alarms they service safety, but erstwhile there is no danger they can be utilized for e.g. as classrooms for integration classes, meetings – mentioned the Polish local government.

The Ukrainian delegation stressed that children's safety was a precedence for them, especially as they attend schools despite the armed conflict. Teaching is conducted in a shift strategy – any children have distant lessons, others on site (the protections would not hold everyone). But everyone knows how to act after proceeding an alarm. Repeated evacuations of students and teachers to the shelter take place immediately. Ukrainian local government officials admitted that building adult shelters was a costly and time-consuming task.

Local authorities in Poland are besides waiting to build shelters for the population (it is worth adding that Warsaw, where the metro is, has no advantage over another cities, due to the fact that underground railway stations have not been designed for crisis situations and, for example, there are quite a few glass elements of equipment). Local governments must besides bend to make evacuation plans for the population, which – especially in the case of Warsaw – is simply a immense challenge.

Knowing the importance of communication and the fight against misinformation, the inhabitants learned about the types of alarms, and about how to behave in times of crisis and how to act in accordance with the principles of civilian protection, they learn from a paper published by the Bielnica Bielany Office. However, this is only the beginning of the road which awaits Polish local governments.

Before concrete decisions are made, it is worth discussing solutions that will defend the Polish civilian protection strategy from errors and weaknesses of the Ukrainian system. Conference on civilian Defence in Practice. The experience of Ukraine" was just utilized to exchange information. Building social resilience requires considerable investment, so the cognition and experience of those who have been tested should be used. It costs nothing, and it's priceless.

During the conference, the panel "evacuation, communication, shelters" (prepared by the Ukrainian side), the discussion "government in times of crisis" and the Q&A session with the delegation of the city of Bojarka. The event was attended by representatives of Ukrainian self-government, including Andria Mykheienko, manager of the Municipal Enterprise “Bojarka-Vodokanał”, Oleksandr Diuldin, associate of the Bojarka City Council and employees of the Bojarka City Council. Bielany was besides hosted by the mayor of the territory of Wesoła Marian Mahor, deputy mayor of the territory of Ochota Slawomir Cygler, deputy mayor of the territory of Remberts Aleksandr Lesiński, territory councillors Piotr Walas, Renata Ciupka and Radosław Sroczyński, and rector-commandant of the Fire Academy, prof. Uczelny, superbrig. The discussion panels were listened to by uniforms: military and sub-chores WAT, border guards officers, police and students of the Fire Academy.