The Tupolev Tu-154 Polish military airplane crashed into the forest next to the runway of Smolensk’s military airfield. All 96 people and their crew were killed. This wasn’t just any airplane crash. This was Poland’s equivalent of Air Force One. Aboard were Poland’s President Ryszard Kaczorowski, the chief of the Polish General Staff and other senior Polish military officers, the president of the National Bank of Poland, Polish government officials, and 18 members of the Polish Parliament. They were en route to a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the murder of some 22,000 Polish military officers, intellectuals, clergy, and other influential Poles by Stalin’s NKVD.
Today, Poland commemorates the 12th anniversary of the Smoleńsk plane crash.
President Lech Kaczyński, his wife Maria and 94 other senior state & military officials tragically perished while en route to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyń Massacre.
Let them rest in peace. 🕯 pic.twitter.com/qgqSgptRWE
— Embassy of Poland U.S. (@PolishEmbassyUS) April 10, 2022
Since the beginning of the investigation, everything was a mystery. Although Polish investigators were permitted to visit the site, Russian investigators had to accompany them. Both “black boxes” were recovered intact and analyzed, but the Russians refused to let the Poles have custody of the wreckage. To add fuel to that fire was the fact that the deceased president was a staunch anti-communist who put Poland’s interests above Vladimir Putin’s, and there have been persistent rumors of traces of explosive residue found in the wreckage. This article provides a great summary of all the issues.
Other investigations by the Poles were conducted after the initial reports and concluded that there had been Russian involvement.
Another one of these reports was received today.
A Polish government special commission has reinforced its earlier allegations that the 2010 plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others in Russia was the result of Moscow’s assassination plan.
The latest of the commission’s reports, released Monday, alleges that an intentional detonation of planted explosives caused the April 10, 2010 crash of Soviet-made Tu-154M plane that killed Kaczynski, the first lady and 94 other government and armed forces figures as well as many prominent Poles.
Their deaths were the result of an “act of unlawful interference by the Russian side,” the commission’s head Antoni Macierewicz told a news conference.
“The main and indisputable proof of the interference was an explosion in the left wing … followed by an explosion in the plane’s center,” said Macierewicz, who in 2015-2018 served as defense minister in Poland’s right-wing government.
I don’t have the technical expertise to untangle the skein of claims, but the technical part of the investigation is a sideshow. Ukraine is the real problem and Russia’s imminent threat to Poland.
Very strong words from Poland’s PM Morawiecki:
– Macron needs to stop calling Putin all the time.
– The Russians are criminals.
– Russia is committing genocide.
– The sanctions are too weak. It is time to increase their effectiveness. pic.twitter.com/vc5MYLrXY4
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 5, 2022
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda tells @DanaBashCNNRussia has committed genocidal acts against Ukraine, and it is determined to exterminate the Ukrainian nation.
He says the West didn’t listen to Poland, Ukraine & the Baltic states regarding the Russian problem. pic.twitter.com/ttQQORvWw6
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 7, 2022
Poland, you’ll recall, took the lead in attempting to supply the Ukrainian Air Force with replacement aircraft (Biden Junta Duplicity Revealed After Poland Declares MiGs for Ukraine Are Ready to Go). Poland is the main point of supply to Ukraine. Poland could be the next target should the war escalate. Poland leads Europe in expelling Russian diplomats (Poland Expels 45 Russian Spies Posing as Diplomats as Fears of Attacks on Ukraine Supply Route Looms), and the Russian ambassador says relations with Poland are the “worst since WW II.” Probably not a great comparison, given that Russia collaborated with Nazi Germany to backstab and then carve up Poland.
The purpose of bringing up this issue, particularly the disrespectful and highhanded treatment Poland received by Russia in the course of the investigation, is to bring home the truth for Poles and remind them what it means to live under Russian rule. And it serves as a way of building national unity in the long term struggle to restrain Putin’s cavalier use of military force to get what he wants.
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