President Andrzej Duda was set to name the new top commanders at 4 p.m. to ensure continuity in Poland’s military command, according to an aide.
Jacek Siewiera, who heads the presidential National Security Bureau (BBN), told a media briefing that the issue was discussed at Duda’s meeting with senior Cabinet ministers on the situation in Israel earlier in the day, the PAP news agency reported.
Siewiera said: “Yesterday the generals decided to tender their resignations and the president, in his role as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, will approve these decisions.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces confirmed that its chief, Gen. Romuald Andrzejczak, and the army’s operational commander, Gen. Tomasz Piotrowski, have both resigned from their posts.
Siewiera told reporters that changes at the top of the army “in no way affect” the military's "current operations," such as the evacuation of Poles from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport amid the Israel-Hamas war.
He added: “The operations of the army as a whole will be continued under the new command because today there will be changes in the positions of top commanders.”
Siewiera revealed that the president had made the decision to appoint new army chiefs earlier on Tuesday, in coordination with Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak, the PAP news agency reported.
Earlier in the day, Poland’s opposition parties demanded that Błaszczak step down over the resignations of the military chiefs.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP