Warsaw has run an exercise to test the reliability of emergency water and power supplies in the city’s shelters, the mayor of the Polish capital has said.
Fresh from the LGBTQ parade over the weekend, Rafal Trzaskowski ordered a snap drill of the city’s emergency services on Monday, “just in case.”
“As part of the Warsaw Safety program, we are checking critical infrastructure; yesterday all city services held training exercises at the water supply plant so that we are ready,” Trzaskowski told reporters on Tuesday. “We are preparing water supplies, preparing warehouses in order to store additional equipment, such as generators. We must be prepared for any kind of situation.”
Trzaskowski also shared photos from the exercise on X (formerly Twitter), reassuring Warsawians that “it’s just a drill,” but that the city takes their safety very seriously.
Water and power utilities, the police, the firefighters and the military all worked together to test “action scenarios in potential crisis situations,” according to the mayor.
Warsaw has a population of around 1.8 million and the ability to accommodate three million people in the subway system, underground parking garages and other designated shelter spaces. However, it will take “some more work” to get all of them up to standard, the mayor said.
The emergency drills in Warsaw came less than two days after Polish President Andrzej Duda called for “decolonizing” Russia by breaking it up into many smaller countries. His comments came during the so-called peace conference on Ukraine in Switzerland.
Duda has also proposed that Poland should host US nuclear weapons, drawing criticism from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, as well as Moscow.
Last week, the US and Poland announced the establishment of the Ukraine Communications Group (UCG), an information warfare outfit designed to “amplify Ukrainian voices,” and counter alleged “deceptive narratives” from Russia. The UCG will be hosted by the Polish Foreign Ministry.
Warsaw has been an outspoken supporter of Kiev both under the previous government of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and since he was replaced by Tusk last December. Poland has served as the logistics hub for almost all deliveries of NATO weapons, equipment, and ammunition to Ukraine since the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022.