Polish volunteer in Ukraine: Russian society is prepared to attack Poland
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Piotr Mitkiewicz, a Polish volunteer, who has been on the front of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, was specializing in recognition, assault techniques and drones. He is currently fighting on the section of the front south of Kupiańska, a city that fell into the hands of the Russians just after the invasion, but then was reflected by the Ukrainians.
Prepared for hate
Marcin Wyrwał reminded that Piotr has a unique experience – he knows the situation from the inside out at the Ukrainian front, and at the same time trains Polish soldiers, so he knows what their awareness of war in the East, which if he reaches Poland, can look in a very similar way. – If you were to give one advice to the Polish army, which is a bit unreal when it comes to this war, what would it be? – He asked.
– From the moment we joined NATO, what equipment we buy and how we train, it is preparing for the mission [w Afganistanie i Iraku] And for counter -terrorist tasks – answered Piotr Mitkiewicz. – And today our real threat is the Russian Federation, i.e. not counter -terrorist actions, but a full -scale war on the entire front line. The Polish army lacks systemic preparation regarding the observation of the battlefield, as well as the use of drones.
Then he reminded the conversation with Marcin I snatched two years ago. At that time, he did not believe in Russia's attack on Poland and considered such a science fiction scenario. – However, observing social media today, I notice the attitude of the Russian society to Poles – he said. – We don't have such much hatred of the Russians as people. And there are people in the media that we are Russophobes, that we want to destroy the Russian Federation.
He also pointed out that in the Russian media there is a sharp campaign on the so -called mercenaries. – When it comes to Ukrainian soldiers, they say it's a pity that they are dying, but it must be. But “NATO Mercenarians” is evil. And Poles are a special category of NATO mercenaries. Poles are the worst – he said.
– I do not want to scare anyone, but as a soldier I learned that we must be prepared for the worst possibility – He added, returning to this thread later in the program. – This possibility is that Russia will stop on the Vistula or reach the borders of Germany. The more that as I say From a good year or two, Russian society has been prepared for hatred for Poles, to the possibility of attacking Poland.
Revolution in recognition
Then Edyta Żemła asked the Polish volunteer how the question of recognition looks like on the front, which has changed revolutionary from the beginning of Russian aggression.
Piotr replied that today the diagnosis is based primarily on observation drones. “The transmission of information and communication is immediate,” he said. And this translates into ad hoc actions: – If such a drone sees any movement, suddenly everything from around 20 km begins to hit this purpose: rocket artillery, smoothbore artillery, FPV drones, drones dropping loads, all suddenly starts working – he added, summarized that the effect is that people staying in positions are usually buried in underground shelters and hiding.
– And do you still send a reconnaissance for the enemy line? – Edyta Żemła asked, referring to the traditional reconnaissance tactics of the Polish army.
Piotr Mitkiewicz replied that in current conditions, when the front is tight, it is rare. “It can take place, as fog is,” he explained. – Ukraine is specific because 80 percent The area is separated from each other by the trees in which soldiers hide. If you go out to the open field, you will just die.
Marcin Wyrwał asked him about another type of recognition based on hacking phones of hostile soldiers.
– We get a lot of information from enemy phones and computers – admitted Piotr. – We learn from them in what location they will hit, in what location they will use gases, what goals they track when they plan the assault – he said, he adds that Interactive maps placed in soldiers are extremely useful, from which you can read a lot of information, including the placement of minefields.
– Are you able to reach this information, is the equipment of the Russian army so badly secured? – Edyta Żemła asked.
“Everyone uses ordinary phones,” explained the podcast guest. – Here you get a virus on a regular phone, this is not a problem. Ordinary serial phones may not be so valuable, but already the platoon commanders, because they have very important information. This platoon commander already has access to information at the battalion level.
Drones – they kill, watch, take it into captivity
In the next part of the podcast, the interlocutors focused on devices that dominated the battlefield. -At this point, drones cause 70-80 percent. all losses on the front – said Piotr. – First of all, they are extremely precise compared to artillery. I like a mortar, I worked on them myself, but if you have a great team, then a mistake of 50 m from the goal is still a good result. However, you always hit the drone centrally at the point.
The Polish volunteer added that today a soldier does not even have to leave the bunker to be noticed by the drone. “Recently, through our observation drone, we only saw smoke coming from the ground,” he said. The FPV drone immediately flew there and destroyed the target.
Drones also led to a situation in which heavy combat vehicles almost completely disappeared from a direct battlefield. – Today tanks are even eight kilometers from the front line and if they shoot, it is rather artillery – said Piotr. – The life of the tank that goes into the direct battle zone is about 15 minutes. These machines are visible to small and medium-sized observation drones from 5-10 km.
Drones are not only for observing and destroying goals. On the modern front they have a whole range of applications, including taking enemy soldiers in slavery. – We recently hit the assault drone at the opponent's shelter – said Piotr. – The destroyed Russian soldiers came out of the destroyed object and raised his hands up to give up. Only it was over a kilometer from our positions. The decision was that we were captured. We sent a drone with a megaphone, through which we said: “Go behind the drone, if you don't want to die.” And he went.
The lecturers did not avoid more personal questions. They asked their guest how he manages to function after three years of almost uninterrupted stay on the front. – I recently went to the therapist in Poland – said Piotr. – As he listened to me, he said he was too thin to lead my therapy.
Later in the podcast, Piotr Mitkiewicz referred to the difficult topic of exhumation of the victims of the Volyn slaughter, the so -called meat attacks, the use of ground drones, Russian systems, to which Ukraine has no answers today, threats related to the decreasing military assistance of the USA, his love for Poland, and also indicated the directions in which Polish soldiers should be trained and talked about the readiness of Polish volunteers in Ukraine to train these soldiers.
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