Darek Delmanowicz/PAP

Poland wants to increase the size of its army by 20,000 in 2023, the Polish prime minister said on Wednesday.

At a press conference held during the Bear-22 military exercises in the south-eastern town of Nowa Deba, Mateusz Morawiecki said: “First of all, we want to create additional divisions in the coming years. We want to recruit at least 20,000 soldiers into the forces in 2023. I am not talking only about the Territorial Defence Forces, but also about basic military service.”

He added that this would require the implementation of modern training systems. “After examining how this looks with our allies, we want the army to be as flexible as possible, and to train as many people as possible,” said the prime minister.

Poland is accelerating an overhaul of its armed forces owing to the war in Ukraine. The government has launched a recruitment drive to increase the size of the Polish Army while placing multi-billion-dollar orders for new tanks, artillery and attack helicopters.