On Saturday, a solemn appeal and dynamic demonstration was held at Castle Square in Lublin to mark the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the 18th Mechanised Division, known as the Iron Division. The ceremony was attended by the Minister of National Defence, Mariusz Blaszczak, who thanked the soldiers for their service at the border.

‘I thank all the soldiers for their service on the border. A hybrid attack on Poland launched from Belarusian territory using migrants is a real threat. If we add to this the presence of mercenaries from the Wagner Group, the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus, we can be sure that the provocations we have seen so far will be repeated. So, the best response to them is to strengthen the Polish Army’, the defence minister noted.

The 18th Mechanised Division named after Lieutenant General Tadeusz Buk is one of the new divisions of the Polish Army, with the process of its formation beginning in 2018. Equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry, the division is one of the key elements of the process of real strengthening and rebuilding of the defence potential on the so-called Eastern Wall.

Formed in 2018, the division refers to the events that took place in 1920 – the victorious war against the Bolsheviks and the Battle of Warsaw. During those events, it was the 18th Infantry Division, later called the Iron Division, that stood out. The new tactical compound meets all NATO standards and is ready to be used for Allied reinforcement.

‘The ‘Iron Division’ receives the most modern equipment ordered from the United States or South Korea. Only the Abrams tanks with which the tank battalions are successively equipped will make it one of the strongest tactical units in Poland, and in Europe. The first Apache helicopters will soon be part of the equipment of the 18th Mechanised Division. They will constitute an impregnable firewall’, announced Minister Błaszczak.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński