Volunteers have been eagerly joining Poland's volunteer militia at a rapid rate, but the country's defence ministry seems to be reining in ambitions for the formation, conceived to help defend the eastern European state from a possible invasion.
The Territorial Defence Forces (WOT) was launched in 2017 aiming to reach a total of 50,000 recruits by the end of 2021.
To date, more than 13,000 civilian volunteers have joined up. Among them is 21-year-old beautician Angelika Pozorska, who has swapped her high heels for army boots at a military training ground in northern Poland.
Pozorska has always dreamed of being a soldier. She was rejected from a medical examination to join the military after an interviewer told her the army was "not a red carpet and high heels" she says.
While at her day job she performs cosmetic and weight-loss treatments on her clients in the small Polish town of Rumia, on the training ground Pozorska has been taking part in target practice and grenade drills.
"I love it" Pozorska says, adding that she wants to show that she is not concerned about the hard physical tasks and lack of importance put on appearances during the training programme.
WOT was modelled on America's National Guard, and its mission statement mentions that the formation will "strengthen patriotic values".
For Grzegorz Woloszczak, a 61-year-old real estate agent from Gdansk who also recently joined WOT, bolstering patriotism among young people and passing on military traditions was his main motivation.
He sees it as a call back to the tradition of the Home Army that fought against occupation in World War Two, and of the later resistance fighters against Communism.
When it was first launched, WOT was expected to add 10,000 recruits every year, and in 2018 was expected to spend 568 million zloty ($153 million) - nearly as much as on Poland's navy.
But according to Polish media, recruitment for WOT is now expected to reach a ceiling of around 17,000 recruits by the end of 2019, and only 20,000 overall.
According to a defence official quoted by Polish daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, the scaling down of ambitions for WOT is due to a lack of funding and considerations over how quickly recruits should be trained.
Eager recruits like Pozorska and Woloszczak might not have many more colleagues joining them in the coming years.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, Reuters
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: tvn24