Poland Ready To Help Ukraine Round Up Military-Aged Men

Poland says it is ready and willing to help Ukraine with its crisis-level manpower and recruitment problems, as it could be poised to round up Ukrainian military-aged males and return them to their home country. Government officials are now strongly signaling just such a controversial plan.

Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz issued the words Wednesday, largely in response to Ukraine's new law and policy requiring men between 18 and 59 living abroad to get or renew their passport only at offices inside Ukraine. It is designed to prevent them from leaving in the country and thus avoid military service.

"Poland has suggested in the past helping Ukraine so that those who are subject to military service go back to their country to fulfill their civic obligation, Kosiniak-Kamysz told Polsat News television," according to Reuters.

"I think many Poles are outraged when they see young Ukrainian men in hotels and cafes, and they hear how much effort we have to make to help Ukraine," he said, but without specifying what precise steps Warsaw is set to take.

According to more of the Polish defense minister's words:

"The Ukrainian authorities are doing everything to provide new soldiers to the front, because the needs are huge," Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

The Polish official said that Warsaw had previously offered to help Kiev track down those who dodge their "civic duty," but noted that "the form of assistance depends on the Ukrainian side."

Of course, we should note that such a policy of helping get young Ukrainian men 'off the streets' is highly convenient from a Polish perspective, given the historic anti-Ukrainian sentiment among the Polish population. Simply put, the two nationalities tend to hate each other, and Warsaw will now cast its policies pressuring Ukrainians to leave as somehow noble.

Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote earlier this week on X that he had "ordered measures to restore fair attitudes toward men of conscription age in Ukraine and abroad." Kuleba complained, "How it looks now: A man of conscription age went abroad, showed his state that he does not care about its survival, and then comes and wants to receive services from this state."

Russian media has estimated that almost one million Ukrainians have been given temporary sanctuary in Poland, and that a significant but unknown portion of these are likely eligible for conscription.

Despite Biden's $60 billion for Ukraine's defense having finally been signed into law by the president, the reality remains that Ukraine is fundamentally suffering a severe crisis of manpower. This essentially means that even as US weapons and equipment arrive, there are fewer and fewer troops experienced enough to actually man and operate them.