Calm and uneasiness near a missile shield in northern Poland

In the event of an armed conflict between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russia, Russian missiles can in principle fall on the US anti-missile shield installed in northern Poland. There, this raises concern with the upcoming war in Ukraine.

“If a serious armed conflict breaks out, the first attack will be directed at our shield. If nuclear charges are used, as the shield is not more than a few kilometers from the center of the city, we can imagine what will happen to us”it says Ryszard Kwiatkowskiformer deputy mayor of the city of Slupskof some 90,000 inhabitants.

Washington argues that the installation in the neighboring municipality of Redzikowo, which should be operational this year, seeks to defend the NATO against ballistic missiles launched from countries such as Iran.

But the Russian president Vladimir Putin he does not believe it and sees in this shield, like other military installations in the region, a threat to his country. Therefore, before starting the war in Ukraine, he demanded the withdrawal of NATO from the countries of central and eastern Europe that were previously satellites of the USSR.

Kwiatkowski is firmly against this shield, construction of which began in 2016, and rejects the argument that it is a defensive system.

“In my opinion, there are no offensive and defensive systems. All military systems are aggressive”he assures.

“And before this NATO defensive system, there is the system of our potential adversary, the Russian Federation, that is, the Iskander missiles recently installed in the Kaliningrad region”a small Russian enclave between Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic Sea about 200 kilometers from Slupsk.

The missiles can reach that city in three minutes, warns the sixty-year-old, worried because “No one knows how the situation in Ukraine will evolve.”

For him, it is “absurd” present this system as a defense against long-range missiles that may arrive from the Middle East. “From the beginning it was directed against Russia, now we don’t hide it anymore”it states.

Kwiatkowski also regrets that the installation has occupied an old abandoned airport where an industrial zone could be created and believes that its presence discourages large Western investors.

Although some neighbors share his fears, most are indifferent and the demonstrations against the shield never gathered more than a few dozen people, he admits.

“Number one goal for Putin”

But the situation has just changed. “Until recently, I had no concern about the shield, but the attack on Ukraine shows that we cannot be sure of anything”it says Tomasz Czescik, 47-year-old archaeologist and journalist.

“Putin has said more than once that this base in Poland, at a distance of just 230 km from the Russian border, should not have been created, that missiles from here can also carry offensive payloads,” Explain.

“When I talk to my comrades in Slupsk, we hear that now we are Putin’s number one target after Ukraine”the Mint.

It may be because she is less interested in current politics as she herself points out, but Ewa Trap, retired and president of the senior citizens’ club, is calm. “I feel safer than if I weren’t there,” it states.

“I am someone simple and modest, I don’t think about distant problems. I live well and I don’t feel restless “the woman insists.