Operational Commander And Head Of General Staff Of Polish Army Resign

• 10.10.2023, 13:25

What is the reason?

Two high-ranking Polish generals — Chief of the General Staff Rajmund Andrzejczak and Commander of the Operational Forces Tomasz Piotrowski — filed for resignation, writes Rzeczpospolita.

According to the publication, the resignations of both commanders were sent to the Presidential Office the day before. It is reported that the generals are resigning due to a conflict with the head of the Ministry of Defense Mariusz Błaszczak, who publicly accused Piotrowski of negligence.

“Błaszczak accused General Piotrowski of not reporting an incident that occurred on December 16, 2022, when a Russian missile violated Polish airspace. He also pointed out that Piotrowski did not conduct an effective search operation for the missile. The head of the Ministry of Defense then proposed dismissing the general, but President Andrzej Duda, who makes personnel decisions regarding the leading commanders of the Armed Forces, did not want to take such tough actions,” writes Rzeczpospolita.

Polish media also note that the generals who resigned were dissatisfied with the politicization of the army during the election campaign.

It is important to note that in December last year, the Russians carried out a massive shelling of the territory of Ukraine, including using aircraft that were stationed in Belarus. Then, due to the appearance of the Su-34 fighter near NATO airspace, Alliance combat aircraft were scrambled into the sky.

At the same time, Polish radars detected an object arriving from the direction of Belarus. The military tracked it until it was lost in the vicinity of Bydgoszcz, a couple of kilometers from the place where a bystander discovered the wreckage in late April.

The search for the object was carried out in this area in December, but was stopped due to bad weather. At the same time, the Polish military, in violation of protocol, did not notify the prosecutor’s office about the incident.