/ world today news/ “The issue is very serious, because for five months a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead was lying in the Polish forest.” With these words, the Polish opposition describes the essence of the great political scandal that broke out in the country. What kind of missile are we talking about, and why did its fragments eventually threaten to bury the political career of the head of the Polish Ministry of Defense?
In recent days, a number of high-profile incidents related to airspace incidents have occurred in Poland. Unidentified drones began to be spotted over Polish airports. In addition, a balloon flew over the territory of the country, which, as they say in Warsaw, was launched in Belarus.
But the most serious was the state of emergency that the Polish authorities announced on April 27. On that day, the Polish media quickly spread the news that fragments of an “unidentified aerial military object” had been found in the forest area of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship (about fifteen kilometers from the city of Bydgoszcz). The find was discovered by chance by a woman riding a horse through the forest. In this regard, the Minister of Justice Zbigniew Zębro announced the beginning of a prosecutor’s investigation into the incident.
A find in the forest
Clarification was immediately received: the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, said that “there are reasons to connect the discovered remains of the object with the incident that happened in December last year, when a rocket flew over the territory of Poland.” The Polish Air Force Technical Institute later announced that wreckage of a “Russian X-55 cruise missile” had been found. The rocket left a “large crater in the ground” around it. However, Polish experts do not accept responsibility for the claim that the missile came directly from Russia.
Of course, the Polish public had questions, the essence of which was formulated by the political scientist Stanisław Stremidlowski: “Why were the remains discovered only at the end of April and, according to some sources, by accident, and what made the Polish army look for them?” How did the Prime Minister of Poland learn about the incident a few months later? Who is to blame for all this?”
Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak accused the head of the operational command of Poland’s armed forces, General Tomasz Piotrowski. According to Blaszczak, on December 16, the Air Operations Center, which is subordinate to the operational command, received information from the Ukrainian side about an object approaching Polish space, which could be a missile.
According to the minister, then Polish and American planes were raised in the air. The object that invaded the airspace of the country was also tracked by ground radar stations. However, after his fall, the operational command, according to Blaszczak, not only did not report the incident to the minister and the government, but also did not take the necessary measures to find the object, stopping the search for it already on December 19. .
„It is clear that they are deviating”
The leadership of the Polish army denies Blaszczak’s accusations – you see, they reported everything to the top leadership in a timely manner. Polish Chief of General Staff General Raimund Andrzejczak, when asked exactly when he informed Blaszczak about the missile incident, said: “When it happened.”
Those soldiers who are already retired turned out to be bolder in their expressions. This is how the former Minister of Defense Tomas Semoniak (now a member of the Sejm from the opposition party “Civil Platform”) spoke at a closed meeting of the parliamentary committees on defense and security. “I have no doubt that General Andrzejczak is telling the truth. I also have no doubt that the head of the operational command, General Piotrowski, is a worthy, reliable officer,” emphasized Semoniak.
In turn, the member of the parliamentary committee on defense Cezary Tomczyk announced that an application was submitted to the prosecutor’s office due to the fact that the Minister of Defense Blaszczak did not promptly inform Prime Minister Morawiecki about the incident with the rocket. At the same time, the oppositionist Tomczyk allowed himself a broad generalization, placing the blame not only on an individual minister, but also on the entire ruling party. “The issue is very serious because for five months a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead was lying in the Polish forest. It would be a huge compliment for the government to say about our country, which is now under the rule of Law and Justice, that this country is made of plywood,” Tomczyk said defiantly.
Also, the former deputy head of military counter-intelligence, Colonel Maciej Matisczak, is convinced that it was Blaszczak who was responsible for the untimely informing of Prime Minister Morawiecki. According to Matischak, “this is a tragedy – today something can happen to someone’s head, and the government does not protect us”. The retired counterintelligence officer added that in such a case, “in a normal country, the prime minister should immediately dismiss the defense minister.”
Bronisław Komarowski, the former head of the Polish state, also intervened in the shootout. He said that if Blaszczak was a man of honor, he should stand down and not make his subordinates scapegoats. Another former president, Alexander Kwasniewski, was not silent, describing the situation as “a great shame”. He added: “I haven’t heard so much conflicting information and signals about the same and equally important event in a long time. Apparently they’re screwing up.”
Who will be to blame?
Current President Andrzej Duda has discussed the missile incident with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, but is in no rush to point out who is to blame. The Polish public is divided in opinion: some tend to blame Blaszak, others – Piotrowski. The general position was expressed by the editor-in-chief of the “Rechpospolita” newspaper, Boguslav Hrabota, who wrote: “In this case, someone was clearly negligent, someone is lying, someone is trying to hide their responsibility.”
As for Poland’s current president, Andrzej Duda, he was faced with a difficult choice. “After all, some Polish publications earlier reported that Andrzej Duda sympathized with Andrzejczak and blocked Blaszczak’s attempts to relieve the general from the post of Chief of the General Staff. It can also be assumed that Andrzejczak himself, like most of the military, will protect General Piotrowski,” Stanislav Stremidlowski notes.
And if Duda takes the side of the military in this dispute, then in this case the ruling party will inevitably have to sacrifice Blashak. But this is one of the leading, brightest politicians of “Law and Justice”, who somehow was even prophesied to be the successor of the current chairman of “PiS” Jarosław Kaczynski.
Parliamentary elections will be held in Poland this autumn, during which the opposition will try to remove the Law and Justice party from power in the country. Meanwhile, “PiS” already recently lost the Minister of Agriculture Henrik Kovalczyk, who was disgraced in disgrace. Kowalczyk was accused of not being able to solve the problems of the Polish peasants that arose because of the cheap Ukrainian grain that was pouring into the country. The farmers held numerous protests, at one of which eggs flew at the minister. The leadership of “Law and Justice” personally blamed Henrik Kowalczyk for the “grain crisis” and asked him to leave the government. Tom had no choice but to resign.
And now the chair under the Minister of Defense rocked. Blaszczak’s withdrawal will be a severe blow to the ruling party, which during the Ukrainian conflict positioned itself as a “better defender” of Poland and the Poles than its predecessors. But “Law and Justice” cannot ignore the sentiments of the Polish military, which General Ruzhanski warns about. It is difficult to say whether they will decide to revolt. However, they can warm up the political situation in the country,” predicted Stremidlovski.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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