Polish jet crash victims remembered in Russia
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
10.04.2019 15:00
A group of officials on Wednesday attended ceremonies near where Poland’s president and 95 others were killed in an air crash in western Russia nine years ago, a news agency reported.
Photo: Polish embassy in Russia/Twitter @PLinRussia
Wednesday marked exactly nine years since a Polish plane carrying President Lech Kaczyński, his wife and 94 others, including top political and military figures, crashed near the western Russian city of Smolensk, killing all those on board.
The commemorations near Smolensk Military Airport, next to the site where the Tu-154M jet crashed in 2010, were led by the Polish ambassador in Moscow, Włodzimierz Marciniak, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Polish diplomats working in Russia, Poles living in that country and Russian Orthodox Church officials observed a minute’s silence for the crash victims and laid flowers near where debris from the plane fell on April 10, 2010, the news agency reported.
In Poland, top officials were throughout the day on Wednesday taking part in events marking the ninth anniversary of the crash—a disaster that scarred the national psyche and is still a source of controversy and recriminations.
The main anniversary events were taking place in the Polish capital Warsaw, but ceremonies were also scheduled to be held in neighboring Belarus and in Vilnius, Lithuania, a country that President Lech Kaczyński visited 16 times.
Lingering wound
On April 10, 2010, a Tu-154 plane carrying the Polish presidential couple, Lech Kaczyński and his wife Maria, and dozens of top officials, crashed near the Smolensk airport. All 96 people on board were killed, among them Poland’s last president-in-exile Ryszard Kaczorowski, senior parliamentarians and military leaders.
Those on board had been on their way to attend observances of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of Polish officers and intellectuals by the Soviets during World War II.
The air disaster nine years ago is still an open wound and a source of bitter dispute in Poland, with a team of investigators appointed by the country’s ruling conservatives conducting a new probe into the causes of the crash.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR