SPECULUM VERUM
16 December last year. soldiers of the Air Component Command's Air Operations Center on monitors, that transmit images from radar, they see an object entering Polish airspace from Belarus. Duty Air Defense Commander, an officer with the rank of colonel reports the incident to gen. Tomasz Piotrowski, operational commanders of the types of armed forces.
According to preliminary findings of the military, Polish airspace could be violated by a Russian cruise missile. However, there is no 100% certainty.
Gen. Piotrowski therefore gives permission to pick up the duty pair of fighters, to identify the object. However, pilots fail to do so. They lose sight of him.
In parallel, more messages are sent. The Minister of Defense Mariusz Błaszczak and the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army are informed about the case, gen. Raymond Andrzejczak.
The chief of staff and the operational commander recommend the defense minister to start a search. “On our part, all procedures have been completed,” a high-ranking officer reserves.
His words are confirmed by another soldier, knowing the story behind the scenes. The third source of this information is a high-ranking ministerial official. Their independent relationships are convergent, also on the further course of the decision-making process after the intrusion into Polish airspace by a Russian missile.
The remains of a Russian rocket in a forest near Bydgoszcz. New informations
According to our sources, the decisions were made as follows: head of the Ministry of National Defense, on the basis of the army's recommendation, it gives consent to launch the search for the missing object. Search and rescue helicopters take off. However, their mission fails. This is also mentioned by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, days after the rocket was found.
"If helicopters have been scrambled.", Meaning, that the site has been pre-located, where this object could have fallen - says Col. rez. Dr. Robert Stachurski, former head of Air Defense, expert. security of the Marek Materek Movement.
“Finding such a rocket by helicopters, if there was no explosion, is very difficult, says Mr. brig. pil. dr hab. Jan Rajchel, former rector-commandant of the Polish Air Force Academy in Dęblin, Stratpoints Foundation expert, professor at UPH Siedlce. But the search operation should not be stopped, even more so then, when we were dealing with an object of unknown destiny and we didn't know, what cargo it contains.
After a failed helicopter mission, the military recommends min. Błaszczak to extend the scope of the search and include soldiers of the Territorial Defense Forces in it, fire brigade, foresters and the police. The leadership of the Ministry of Defense does not agree to this.
The object is to be searched by army forces, which is to be done discreetly and quietly, so as not to arouse anxiety among local residents and not to alarm the media, Onet informants say.
The incident takes place exactly one month after that, as in Przewodowo in the province. A Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile falls in Lublin, which kills two Polish citizens. However, Minister Błaszczak assures, that “the sky over Poland is safe”.
It also emphasizes, that our country has already built a multi-layered air defense system, although in fact its construction is still in its infancy.
Intrusion of a Russian missile into Polish airspace, a month after the tragedy in Przewodowo, so it is extremely unsuitable for the Ministry of Defence. Contrary to military recommendations, the leadership of the Ministry of National Defense decides to abandon the search for the missing rocket.
“This is a very serious omission, dictated only by political and image matters - says Gen. Rajchel.
Onet asked the defense ministry, how the information flow looked like in connection with the violation of Polish airspace by a foreign object, how it happened, that the rocket was lost, and what decisions were made next? The MoD Operations Center refused to answer these questions, behind the investigation by the prosecutor's office.
The police arrive on Monday.
Officers secure the area and take photographs.
“We got information about the incident from the police. The photos were then sent to the committee, on which we found, that can be stated with high probability, it is a military facility. Therefore, the matter does not fall within our remit. It was taken over by the army - says Krzysztof Miłkowski, chairman of the State Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission.
The military, who on Tuesday appear in the forest near Bydgoszcz quite quickly - according to our informants - they know, what is the found object.
— Most likely, a Russian Kh-55 missile has been found, which was launched from their plane from Belarus. We do not have a 100% confirmation of this fact yet, but there are many indications of it, this is from a few months ago. Our Air Operations Center radars tracked the flight of this rocket at that time, but at some point they lost it - we hear on Wednesday morning from a Onet informant, high-ranking officer of the Polish Army.
Ziobro is the first to react
The first to react, however, is the Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro. He announces on Twitter, that the Department of. Military District Prosecutor's Office in Gdańsk conducts proceedings in this case and examines it in terms of Art. 163 § 1 pkt 3 of the penal code.
The article reads like this: “Who brings the event, that threatens the life or health of many people or property in large dimensions, having the form: explosion of explosive or flammable materials or other violent release of energy, the spread of poisonous substances, suffocating or burning”.
Although Mariusz Duszyński, the prosecutor of the District Prosecutor's Office in Gdańsk reserves, that the legal qualification of the proceedings adopted by the prosecutors “is a base qualification and does not determine the course of the event”, however, this was unofficially confirmed a few days ago by Onet, that the most serious hypothesis considered by investigators investigating the event is this, that a Russian Ch-55 rocket was found launched near Bydgoszcz 16 December last year. from a Russian plane flying over Belarus.
On Wednesday, the journalists of the RMF FM station also revealed, that the experts from the Air Force Institute of Technology, examining the remains of the find near Bydgoszcz recognized, that it is a Russian Kh-55 cruise missile.