Body of Poland President Located, Russia Declares Day of Mourning
World | April 10, 2010, Saturday // 18:03| viewsHundreds of Warsaw residents have been laying flowers at the gate of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, following a crash of the Polish presidential plane near Smolensk in Russia. Russia declared April 12 a Day of Mourning. Photo by BGNES
The body Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash Saturday, has been found by the investigators.
The news was announced Saturday by France Press.
Kaczynski, who was due to visit Smolensk to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which Soviet troops killed thousands of Poles, perished when the government TU-154 plane crashed near the airport of the Russian city.
With the finding of the body, the tragic news about Kaczynski’s death was confirmed with certainty.
According to latest reports, all 96 passengers and crew died. The delegation included top politicians, clergy and military men, among them the Governor of the Polish Central Bank, the Army’s Chief of Staff, former ministers, Members of the Parliament, deputy ministers, relatives of the 1940 Katyn victims, intellectuals.
The bodies will be transported to Moscow. Russian Prime Minister, Vladimr Putin and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk are traveling to Smolensk.
Putin says the tragedy is beyond belief while many in Poland question the decision to send the entire delegation on the same plane.
Russian President, Dmitri Medvedev, declared April 12 a Day of Mourning in Russia.
Back