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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 15 March 2022
Russian missile strike near NATO’s Poland stirs anxiety

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Morawiecki said the attack,
Russian missile attack that close to a refugee route to
killed at least 35 people in Poland, was also intended
western Ukraine, some 15 to “provoke panic among
miles from NATO member civilians” fleeing the “hor-
Poland, has stirred anxiety rors of the war.”
and spurred Poles to rush to Poland has taken in more
passport offices and stock- than 1.8 million refugees
pile essentials amid fears from Ukraine — nearly all
the war could cut off sup- women and children —
plies, or even spill over into since Feb. 24, when Russian
Poland. troops invaded Ukraine
A long line of applicants, and then unleashed at-
unseen for decades, tacks on hospitals, schools
formed Monday outside and residential areas.
Warsaw’s main passport Morawiecki said that the
office on Krucza Street. Yavoriv attack and those
Canned food, bottled wa- on civilians are aimed at
ter, flashlights and batter- “destroying this humanitar-
ies filled shoppers’ baskets. ian effort ... of help being
People in the street talked offered to innocent peo-
of the latest news and their ple, women, children.”
worries for the future. Poland’s deputy foreign
In the street, outside the A Polish border guard carries a child as he helps people fleeing Ukraine to cross at the Ukrainian- minister, Marcin Przydacz,
passport office, Justyna Polish border crossing in Korczowa, Poland, Saturday, March 5, 2022. said he does not believe
Winnicka, 44, was filling out Associated Press that Russia, which he as-
the passport form for her serted “visibly is not coping
16-year-old daughter, Mi- “We all believe that the their passports ready and the alliance is fulfilling its in Ukraine” would try an at-
chalina. fact that we are in NATO some dollars, too. task of ensuring Poland’s tack on a NATO country.
“We want to have a pass- will protect us in some way, “So I will apply for passports safety. Nevertheless, he stressed
port because the last one but each of us also remem- to be done for my chil- But Russia’s strike Sunday “one should be cautious
expired and we want to bers the history of World dren,” said Kwiatkowska, on a Ukrainian military train- and we are being cau-
be able to go on vacation, War II and the (failed) al- whose children, aged 10 ing center in Yavoriv, less tious.”
but also want to be able liances of those times,” and 8, have not traveled than 15 miles (25 kilome- People in the capital, War-
to travel abroad in case Winnicka said.“Things can abroad yet. ters) from the border with saw, in central Poland,
something happens here in turn out in different ways. All this despite the fact Poland, shook the confi- were all too cognizant of
Poland,” Winnicka told The In Poland people are a bit that NATO, to which former dence of Poles living near the potential threat to East-
Associated Press. afraid,” she said. Eastern bloc nation Poland the border and created ern bloc nations that, like
Asked if she was afraid be- On Sunday, Anna Kwiat- has belonged since 1999, anxiety among others all to Poland, were once under
cause of the fighting just kowska, 42, a mother of is strengthening its military aware of Russia’s and the the control of the Soviet
across Poland’s border, she two, said a friend working presence in eastern Po- Soviet Union’s past control Union, for more than four
said “Everybody is a little bit for a foreign firm had ad- land, close to the Ukraine of Poland’s territory. decades after World War
afraid today.” vised the family to have border, and stresses that Prime Minister Mateusz II.q

Germany to buy US-made F-35s to replace aging bombers

BERLIN (AP) — Germany II aircraft capable of carry- also will upgrade its Euro- “There can be only one military.
said Monday that it will ing nuclear weapons. fighter Typhoon fighter jets answer to (Russian Presi- “We reject arming the
replace some of its aging Announcing the decision, for electronic warfare — a dent Vladimir) Putin’s ag- Bundeswehr with new,
Tornado bomber jets with Defense Minister Christine capability that’s also cur- gression,” said Gerhartz. nuclear-capable combat
U.S.-made F-35A Lightning Lambrecht said Germany rently fulfilled by the Tor- “Unity in NATO and a cred- jets,” said Ali Al-Dailami,
nado jets. The Eurofighter ible deterrent. This in par- the party’s deputy defense
will be replaced from 2040 ticular means there is no spokesman. He warned
with the Future Combat alternative but to choose that equipping German
Air System, or FCAS, that’s the F-35.” pilots to drop U.S. atomic
being jointly developed The German military does bombs could “fuel the risk
with France and Spain, she not have nuclear weapons of nuclear war in Europe.”
said. of its own, but as part of German Chancellor Olaf
Germany’s air force com- the system of nuclear de- Scholz announced last
mander, Ingo Gerhartz, terrence developed dur- month that the country
said the current war in ing the Cold War it main- would create a special
Ukraine made it neces- tained bombers capable fund of 100 billion euros
sary to choose Lockheed of carrying U.S. atomic ($113 billion) to bolster its
Martin’s F-35s. Previously, bombs, some of which are armed forces and raise de-
the government had con- stationed in Germany. fense spending above 2%
sidered replacing the Luft- The opposition Left Party of gross domestic product,
F-35B aircraft pass on a runway after landing at the Akrotiri waffe’s Tornados with a criticized the decision to a measure on which it had
Royal air forces base near city of Limassol, Cyprus, Tuesday, mix of different U.S. and purchase almost three long lagged behind other
May 21, 2019. European-made aircraft. dozen F-35s for Germany’s NATO countries on.q
Associated Press