2 top Polish military commanders resign in a spat with the defense minister

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Two top commanders of the Polish armed forces have tendered their resignations, the military said Tuesday.

Polish media have reported on growing tensions between the two commanders — the chief of the General Staff, Gen. Rajmund Andrzejczak, and operational commander Gen. Tomasz Piotrowski — and Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak.

Blaszczak has publicly criticised Piotrowski over the army’s reaction to a stray Russian missile that crashed in a Polish forest in December. No one was hurt.

Blaszczak alleged that Piotrowski had not informed him of the incident and that the army failed to find the missile. It was later accidentally found by a civilian.

According to media reports, the minister had recently kept Piotrowski out of the loop on operational decisions like stepping up defenses on the border with Belarus or the evacuation of Poles from Israel after the weekend Hamas attack.

The resignations come five days before key parliamentary elections and media reports, including the Rzeczpospolita daily, said the two generals objected to the armed forces being used in the government’s election campaign.

The decisions whether to accept the resignations rests with President Andrzej Duda, who is the supreme commander.

Duda convened a meeting Tuesday of the National Security Bureau with the prime minister and key ministers.