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Monument to 2010 air crash victims to be unveiled in Warsaw on April 10

PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki 29.03.2018 14:00
A monument to honour the victims of the fatal 2010 Polish presidential plane crash in Russia will be unveiled in Warsaw on April 10, eight years after the disaster, the country’s ruling conservatives have said.
Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of Poland’s ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party and twin brother of the late President Lech Kaczyński, who died in the April 10, 2010 plane crash in Russia, along with 95 others. Photo: PAP/Bartłomiej ZborowskiJarosław Kaczyński, leader of Poland’s ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party and twin brother of the late President Lech Kaczyński, who died in the April 10, 2010 plane crash in Russia, along with 95 others. Photo: PAP/Bartłomiej Zborowski

The ceremony at the Polish capital’s Piłsudski Square will also feature the unveiling of a foundation stone at a site where a separate monument commemorating late President Lech Kaczyński will be erected at a later time, Polish Radio's IAR news agency reported on Thursday.

April 10 will mark exactly eight years since a Polish plane carrying President Lech Kaczyński, his wife and 94 others – including top political and military figures – crashed near Smolensk, western Russia, killing all those on board.

Poland's current President Andrzej Duda and Jarosław Kaczyński, twin brother of the late president and leader of the country’s ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, will both address the crowd during the unveiling ceremonies in the afternoon of April 10, the PAP news agency said, citing a schedule posted by the governing party on its website.

Probe in progress

The ruling conservative Law and Justice party, of which Jarosław Kaczyński is head, has long challenged an official report into the 2010 crash issued by Poland’s previous government, which cited a catalogue of errors on the Polish side, while also pointing to errors made by Russian staff at the control tower of Smolensk Military Airport.

A Russian report placed all the blame on the Poles.

PiS has launched its own inquiry into the crash which, in initial findings, suggested the plane was probably destroyed by a mid-air explosion, and that Russian air traffic controllers deliberately misled the Polish pilots about their location as the presidential plane approached the runway of the Smolensk military airport in 2010.

In mid-December last year, Poland's defence minister at the time, Antoni Macierewicz, said that Russia was responsible for the plane crash. He also said that the Polish presidential plane, which crashed near the western Russian city of Smolensk, was destroyed by "two explosions."

In January, the new team of investigators appointed by Macierewicz said that the jet’s left wing was destroyed as a result of an explosion on board.

The commission said that the explosion had “several sources” on the plane.

(gs/pk)

Source: IAR, PAP

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