Mariusz Błaszczak thanked everyone who attended the training in the northern town of Morąg, Polish state news agency reported.
The defence minister said that similar events were being held simultaneously in the capital Warsaw, the northern city of Toruń and the country’s easternmost city of Hrubieszów.
The Polish Army also trained civilians in several cities on the previous Saturday, he added.
Błaszczak told the gathering: “We have received lots of applications. I am very pleased and thankful for that. In the course of two Saturdays, last week and today, a thousand people are getting the opportunity to learn about issues to do with defence and security. These are very basic principles.”
The defence minister, who is also a deputy prime minister, said that everyone taking part in the training programme would “familiarise themselves with the use of weapons, learn the basic principles of administering first aid and get acquainted with survival skills, such as purifying water or lighting a fire.”
War in Ukraine
Błaszczak stressed that a war was raging beyond Poland’s eastern border.
“Hopefully we won’t have to put these skills to practice in Poland, but it’s always better to possess them,” he told the audience in Morąg.
During the event, some 80 helmet-wearing participants practised shooting, grenade throwing, hand-to-hand combat and the giving of first aid, before being treated to a hot meal, the PAP news agency reported.
Until the end of November, the defence ministry will hold such free-of-charge, one-day training courses for civilian adults in every army garrison in Poland, Błaszczak said.
Monday is day 236 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, gov.pl