Antoni Macierewicz: the plan to defend Poland on the Vistula line was a fundamental mistake, absolutely unacceptable

Antoni Macierewicz, who headed the Ministry of Defense in 2015-2016, was asked by PAP about the 2011 plans to defend Polish territory on the Vistula line, which are recalled by the head of the Ministry of National Defense, Mariusz Błaszczak, in the PiS spot, accusing the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk of being ready to give up part of the country.

“I would like to remind you that I resigned from a number of generals who pushed these plans and did not agree to transfer troops from the west to eastern lands to defend the eastern border,” Macierewicz emphasized.

As he added, “he is still under attack for having resigned from those generals who pushed for this course of action, who did not want to defend the eastern part of the Republic of Poland, who were ready to leave it to an attack from the Russian side.”

“I considered it absolutely unacceptable and forced them to start transferring troops from the west to the east. Those who did not want to do it had to leave,” noted the former head of the Ministry of National Defense.

“One of the people who had to leave was General Mirosław Różański, General Commander of the Armed Forces,” he recalled.

Macierewicz emphasized that he assessed the defense plans on the Vistula line as “absolutely unacceptable.”

“It was a fundamental mistake. One could have feared that the real interpretation was that the point was not to defend Białystok, but Berlin, not to defend Rzeszów, only the southern German territories, that – in short – Poland was treated only as a protection the German border, and the Polish border was to be absolutely surrendered to the Russians. This was unacceptable,” the politician said.

On Sunday, a PiS spot appeared on social media, in which the Minister of National Defense, Mariusz Błaszczak, explains how dangerous the plans to defend our country’s territory along the Vistula River were for Poland.

“Attention, attention! Tusk’s government was ready to give up half of Poland in the event of war. The plan for the use of the Armed Forces, approved by the then head of the Ministry of National Defense, Klich, assumed that the independent defense of the country would last a maximum of two weeks, and after seven days the enemy would reach the right bank of the Vistula.” – says Błaszczak in the recording.

The spot includes photos of documents, including fragments of the plan to use the Polish Armed Forces as part of an independent defense operation, approved by the former head of the Ministry of National Defense, Bogdan Klich. Minister Błaszczak also refers to the words of former Commander General Mirosław Różański.

“This is confirmed by General Różański, the former general commander. The documents clearly show that Lublin, Rzeszów and Łomża could have been the Polish Bucza. Law and Justice changed that and will defend every piece of Poland,” emphasized the head of the Ministry of National Defense.

The spot sparked a wave of criticism from opposition politicians, which was commented on by Błaszczak on Monday.

“The Civic Platform holds a grudge that we revealed their plans to hand over half of Poland into the hands of the enemy. Poles have the right to know what fate you have prepared for them! In the event of a conflict, the Polish Army is to fight for every meter of our territory and for every human life. You were preparing a repeat of Bucza and Irpienia, and you wanted to turn Warsaw into a front city!” – the minister wrote on Twitter. (PAP)

author: Grzegorz Bruszewski

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