‘I’d defend our nation’: Poles prepare for growing threat of war

From digging trenches and building walls, to learning survival skills, Poland is increasingly aware of risks posed by its eastern neighbours

Cezary Pruszko still remembers the civil defence training of his Communist-era schooldays - map reading, survival skills, and a sense that the danger of war was real and ever present.

My generation grew up with those threats. You didn't have to explain why this mattered," said the 60-year-old Pruszko, as he refreshed those skills at an army base outside Warsaw on a recent frosty Saturday morning. With dozens of other Polish civilians, he toured a bomb shelter, fitted gas masks and practised striking sparks from a flint to start a fire.