10 years ago, on 10 April 2010, a plane carrying a Polish elite delegation crashed near Smolensk, Russia. 96 people were killed, including President Lech Kaczyński and his wife, Maria. The delegation flew to pay homage to Polish officers murdered by the Soviets in Katyn in 1940. Today in Warsaw and many other places in the country, a ceremony to commemorate the Smolensk catastrophe took place, though they were largely limited due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The commemorations in Warsaw began at 8.41 a.m, the exact time that the Tu 154-M plane carrying Polish delegation on board crashed near the Severnyy airport near Smolensk. This morning, at Pilsudski Square in Warsaw, Jarosław Kaczyński, Chairman of the Law and Justice party, accompanied by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and his government ministers, Speaker of the Sejm, Elżbieta Witek, as well as representatives of other authorities laid wreaths at the monument dedicated to the victims of the Smolensk disaster and the sacred memory of President Lech Kaczynski. The ceremony was modest due to the regulations put in place to battle the coronavirus epidemic. Its participants recited a prayer for the victims of the disaster. At 9.30 a.m. the leader of the Law and Justice party and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki placed flowers at the monument to the victims of the Smolensk catastrophe at the Powazki Cemetery. In the evening,. President Andrzej Duda is to give a special televised address on the anniversary of the catastrophe of 10 April 2010.