Wednesday media review; Ukrainian offensive is simply a blow to Putin's prestige; 300-thousandth army is simply a goal Poland should pursue

**Grzegor Psujek:Rzeczpospolita:“Expenditure on modern equipment for the army regularly grows**
"The process of modernization of the Polish Armed Forces in fresh years has accelerated considerably. fresh weapons go to all kinds of troops. Billions for modern equipment flow to producers in Poland. In 2022, 2.39% of GDP was spent on the Polish Armed Forces, and 3.26% in 2023. The mark is as much as 4% of GDP. Most of these expenses were spent on fresh equipment. After decades of peace in our part of Europe, the time erstwhile we cut the coupons off from the alleged "peace dividend", we again have reason to fear for the future. This has been brought to our attention by the war in Ukraine that has been going on for more than 2 years. Poland returned to the way of dynamic arms, which resulted in a leap of spending on fresh equipment. The numbers are impressive. In 2023, full expenditure on defence, both from the state budget and the Armed Forces Support Fund, amounted to PLN 111.2 billion. By comparison, in 2022 the value of defence spending amounted to PLN 73.6 billion, which means that in the year to year the jump was as much as 51%. The scale of Polish armaments is besides perfectly demonstrated by the value of expenditure taken from GDP. Thus, in 2022 this rate was 2.39%, which is somewhat above the NATO level of 2%. A year later, in 2023, this rate had already jumped to 3.26%. The level of spending is expected to grow rapidly all the time, and the mark in 2024 is 4% of GDP. The penny of these expenses is money for what is most visible. That is, for fresh equipment.”