Panel: Russia behind Polish leader’s plane crash
WARSAW, Poland – 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 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.
He denied that any mistakes were made by the Polish pilots or crew members, despite bad weather at the time of the crash. The report repeats many previous allegations made by the commission, appointed by the government whose key figure is the main ruling Law and Justice party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin of the late president.
It comes at a time when Russia has unleashed a war on Poland’s neighbor Ukraine, and among the current tense relations between Warsaw and Moscow.
Poland supports Ukraine in its struggle against Russia and is calling for very tough sanctions on Moscow for its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
The latest report once again drums up hostility toward Russia among some Poles.