Poland charges former official who declassified plan for the nation’s defense

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Polish prosecutors filed charges Friday against a former defense minister who declassified parts of a plan for national defense that had been prepared years before under an earlier government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Mariusz Błaszczak, the defense minister in a national conservative government that held power from 2015-2023, revealed in 2023 a military defense plan that had been drawn up in 2011. The document laid out plans for the Polish army to retreat westward to the Vistula River, which runs through the center of Poland, in case of an invasion from the east by Russia.

Błaszczak was read the charges at the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw on Friday, he told reporters afterward, according to the state news agency PAP.

He said he believed the allegations were unfounded.

Earlier in the day he wrote on X that the prosecutor's office was to “bring charges against me for declassifying the plan of the first Tusk government to give up half of Poland without a fight."

"I would do it again without hesitation. I had not only the right, but also the duty” he said.

Addressing Tusk, he added: “Thanks to this, Poles know the truth about the fate you prepared for the inhabitants of Eastern Poland. Thanks to this, no one will ever return to such plans."