Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1517379
which Mariusz Błaszczak, the head of the MoD at the time, was trying to shift the blame to the Operational Commander. Not only did the operational commander disagree with the accusations, but he was also backed by the Chief of General Staff and the President. General Andrzejczak, and General Piotrowski leaving the Armed Forces was a long-term con- sequence of that crisis, but these developments shall be discussed in a separate article. What remains relevant for the present analysis is the fact that the Kh-55 decoy (war- head-less) missile fell in Bydgoszcz - designed to fool the air defenses. When compared to the incident that happened on December 29th, the consequences were greater. Contrary to the initial, unofficial info, nothing fell on the Polish territory. A Kh-101 cruise missile probably passed over the land close to the border, staying in the Polish airspace for three minutes, without doing any harm. Considering the area where the inci- dent took place, no danger to critical facilities occurred. Considering the facts, however, one needs to recall two very unpleasant ones, especially when placed within the con- text of hot-headed, emotional reactions taking on the form of media statements or social media posts, expecting, or even asking for the Russian missile to be intercepted and shot down, and for the very same scenario to happen for the future intrusions. The first fact is, that events and incidents as such are im- possible to avoid. There is a full-scale war happening within the territory of our neighbor, and there is a risk that due to human errors, or failures, aircraft, cruise missiles, and oth- er flying objects may violate the Polish airspace. This does ANALYSIS