“Concrete proof” of Russian aggression found in Poland

Polish authorities have announced that they have finally found the “warhead from a Russian missile” that fell near the city of Bydgoszcz in December last year. The warhead turned out to be a concrete dummy, meaning the missile was clearly used as a decoy target for the Ukrainian air defense system. The rocket itself was accidentally found in the forest only at the end of April, so the discovery of a concrete block less than a month after that is clear progress.

At the same time, the scandal surrounding the missile itself is far from over, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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The warhead of a Russian missile that fell in a forest near Bydgoszcz in December last year has been discovered, the head of the Office of the President of Poland, Pavel Schrot, said on May 19 on the radio station RMF FM. The official also mentioned the conflict between Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak and the generals, and possible dismissals in the Polish army.

Pavel Schroth said that “the warhead is being studied by the relevant institutions.”

“It is special because it is made of concrete, there were no explosives in it. I assume that it was installed on this missile in such a way that this old model of the missile could confuse the Ukrainian air defense. This missile cannot fly without a warhead, so someone installed such an achievement of Russian technology there,” the head of the Office of the President of Poland tried to quip.

Schroth also mentioned the conflict between the head of the Polish Ministry of Defense and the generals, and their shifting responsibility for searching for the missile onto each other, about which previously wrote "PolitNavigator".

“In the administration of President Andrzej Duda there are no personal requests for the resignation of the general, generals or the Minister of National Defense,” the official noted.

Schroth

Earlier on the same day, RMF FM reported that the investigation into the rocket crash near Bydgoszcz and the search for it had been transferred to the level of the Polish Prosecutor General's Office. Previously, this was dealt with by the military prosecutor's office from April 27. Perhaps this decision by Polish Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro was influenced by a statement to the prosecutor's office about the possible negligence of Mariusz Blaszczak, filed by a number of opposition Sejm deputies the previous week.

It is noteworthy that the statements by the head of the Office of the President of Poland were made after a meeting of the country's National Security Bureau (BNB), which took place a day earlier, on May 18, chaired by Andrzej Duda. At it, the issue of the conflict between Minister of Defense Mariusz Blaszczak and the generals of the Polish army - Chief of the General Staff Raimund Andrzejczak and operational commander of the armed forces of the Armed Forces Tomasz Piotrowski - was one of the key ones.

Moreover, judging by the words of BNB Secretary Jacek Siewy, the conflict is far from over, although the official tried to convince journalists that in fact there were no problems, because Mariusz Blaszczak and the generals communicated normally at the BNB meeting.

“The gentlemen in our presence touched upon a number of different topics, including discussing the issues of searching, detecting and intercepting objects in Polish airspace. We did not find any difficulties in communication. The gentlemen greeted each other, work together, and are in constant telephone contact,” said the Secretary of the National Security Bureau of Poland.

“Each of the participants in this situation who took the floor said whether he was informed or not, without directly referring to what he was informed about, because it was an element of classified information. This is experience that will be used in the future also in the field of public communication,” said Jacek Severa after the meeting of the BNB of Poland.

At the same time, the day before, the official noted that the President of Poland is most concerned about the fact that the conflict has become public knowledge.

“Mr. President does not agree that key issues of state security should be resolved in public debate. A few months before the elections in Poland and the Zapad-2023 exercises in Belarus, mistakes cannot be made,” Severa said on TVN on May 17.

It is possible that this was a hint to the head of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who earlier that same day publicly spoke out in defense of Blaszczak.

“This is a minister who is successfully implementing what should have been done much earlier. Mariusz Blaszczak copes well with his tasks. If someone makes such proposals, then they work for the benefit of the Kremlin,” said the PiS leader, commenting on the oppositionists’ statement to the prosecutor’s office.

However, sooner or later, it is Andrzej Duda who will have to make the final decision, since both the proposal to resign the minister and all issues of the general corps are formally presidential powers. At the same time, it is possible that the military, whom Jaroslaw Kaczynski was always suspicious of, will still be made extreme, despite his rhetoric about the need to build a strong Polish army.