General Waldemar Skrzypczak questions the version of events of Polish Minister of Defense Mariusz Błaszczak, who blamed an operational commander of the Polish Armed Forces for failing to fulfill his duty after a stray Russian missile landed on Polish territory in December last year.
Skrzypczak, when asked in an interview by Dorzeczy.pl portal about why Piotrowski failed to inform the defense minister about the incident, reacted with disbelief.
“I’m an old soldier and have never come across an instance when superiors would not be informed about an accident of such importance,” he said. The general added he personally knew the generals currently in command and simply ruled out that they would fail to inform their commander about such an incident.
The former chief of staff was, however, concerned about the state of Poland’s air defenses. He felt that Poland and NATO needed to regroup their forces closer to the eastern border to make it more secure.
The general said he feels that with regard to the supply of F-16 fighter planes to Ukraine, the allies were likely to relent to Ukrainian requests as they have done with regard to other weapons, such as long-range missiles, which Britain is now supplying with Storm Shadow missiles.
Gen. Skrzypczak said he thinks that NATO has understood that it must do all it can to make the Ukrainian counteroffensive successful before the July 11 NATO summit in Vilnius. This is necessary for the Ukrainians to be able to press their case for NATO membership at that summit, he said.
However, Gen. Skrzypczak said he does not feel that the Ukrainian attack in Bakhmut is part of the counteroffensive as such. He believes that the Ukrainians have focused on a new group of Russians vulnerable to attack. The Ukrainians attacked troops who had just entered their new position and succeeded in encircling them.
