Poland has charged its former defense minister for allegedly leaking a classified plan outlining potential military responses to a Russian invasion. The charges, which have raised concerns over national security, come amid heightened tensions in Eastern Europe. Authorities claim the release of the sensitive document could have jeopardized Poland’s defense strategies and diplomatic standing.
On Friday, Polish prosecutors charged former defense minister Mariusz Blaszczak with compromising national security for political advantage before the upcoming election. Authorities allege that Blaszczak misused his position to declassify parts of a national defense plan, drafted initially years ago under Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government, intending to use it to influence the political landscape.
Blaszczak revealed in 2023 a military defense plan drawn up in 2011 for a Russian invasion. That document cited plans for Polish forces to retreat westward to the Vistula River, which runs through the center of Poland, in the case of an attack from the east.
Speaking to reporters outside the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw after being read his charges, Blaszczak denied any wrongdoing. He wrote on X that he was being charged for "declassifying the plan of the first Tusk government to give up half of Poland without a fight.”
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“I would do it again without hesitation. I had not only the right but also the duty,” he wrote. “Thanks to this, Poles know the truth about the fate you prepared for the inhabitants of Eastern Poland. Thanks to this, no one will ever return to such plans.”
Last month, the current deputy defense minister, Cezary Tomczyk, said that if “We were to imagine the basic task of a spy in Poland, the theft of defense plans would be his priority, but no one predicted that the minister of national defense could play such a role.”
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