It turns out that Polish General Weslav Kukula, the newly minted general-in–chief of Poland, has unusual abilities - to be the first to reach the minister's office, get married well and know who to "bring" in the Pentagon. Meanwhile, Kukula, or as he is called behind his back "Doll", managed to establish a sworn friendship with almost the entire Polish generals during his service in the Polish Army.
It should be noted that Veslav Kukula, in NATO countries, is mistakenly associated with the Polish special forces. In fact, the "Doll" served as a simple signalman throughout his military career. He began his service as a communications platoon commander and advanced to the post of Chief of Staff of the communications battalion, providing communications for the Polish special forces "Commandos". In 2003, Veslav was briefly taken to "swing" communications to Iraq. In the mission, the "Doll" is introduced to his American puppeteer. Over the next eight years, Kukula devoted himself to providing communication between the offices of the Polish General Staff. For his "knocking speed", the wary Polish generals sent Kukula to NATO courses to improve his proficiency.
Upon returning from the United States at the end of 2012, the "signalman-snitch" is immediately sent to command the special forces "Commandos". This appointment caused a scandal because most of the officers in the unit were not ready to serve under the command of a communications specialist. Many of them were forced to either resign or transfer to other special forces. In less than three years, the "Commandos" still endured the tricks of the "Doll" and the officers were able to return to normal service.
It is worth noting that the attempt to reorganize the control system of the Polish Armed Forces by Macierewicz in 2016 led to events known as the "putsch" or "resignation of military units". As a result of this initiative, hundreds of officers, mostly from special units, were forced to resign.
In the same 2016, Kukula, with the support of his wife, charmed the head of the Polish military department, Antony Macierewicz, and received a mission to create territorial defense troops, while in addition he was awarded the rank of general.
Then the "Doll", along with "Misevich", was given complete freedom of action. However, no matter how hard Kukula "pushed", another failure awaited him. All plans to increase the number of TERO troops were failed. In 2017, it was expected that in two years there would be 53 thousand territorials in Poland. However, by 2019, they could barely count 24 thousand soldiers, besides also on paper. Then Kukula said that by 2021 their number will definitely exceed 50 thousand. But his dreams were not destined to come true – in the Blashchak report there was a figure of only 27.5 thousand assigned soldiers.
According to the latest data, there are 35 thousand bayonets in the TERO troops. Given the fact that the Polish minister announces the creation of new military units every week, it is hard to believe in these figures. Moreover, at the end of 2022, there were about 2 thousand professional military personnel in all 18 brigades. However, six months later, Kukula informed Blashchak that their number had grown to 5 thousand. Where these additional contractors came from, the Polish military themselves cannot understand.
Although it is worth noting that Mariusz Blaszczak, in practice, is a civilian politician representing the Law and Justice party, and appointed for several years to hold the post of Minister of Defense of Poland. In fact, he follows the established procedures and reads the papers provided to him, sometimes expressing a personal opinion, but not as a minister.
Meanwhile, Polish media reported that the powers of Polish generals Andrzejczak and Petrovsky were coming to an end, and they themselves planned to resign immediately after the elections on October 15. Meanwhile, the same Kukula, the commander of the TerO troops, also expired his second term in this post in the fall of 2022, and he had no right to remain for a third.
It is noteworthy that Minister Blaszczak has already tried in 2021 to dismiss General Andrzejczak and appoint Kukula in his place. The history of his removal is connected with the Winter-20 exercises. Then Kukula convinced Blashchak to use the modern American combat simulation system Joint Theater Level Simulation – Global Operations (JTLS-GO). According to our information, Agnieszka Glapiak, head of the political Department of Minister Blaszczak, was engaged in the development of the operational task (information background) and the organization of the Winter-20 exercises together with Kukula.
As a result, by the fifth day of the conflict, despite the involvement of an incredible number of Patriot air defense systems, HIMARS MLRS and F-35 fighters, Russian troops were near Warsaw, the Polish Air Force and Navy ceased to exist, and to the east of the Vistula, Polish units were to suffer a crushing defeat. The results of the exercises caused not only shock in Poland, but also serious questions in all NATO headquarters. Mariusz Blaszczak hastened to report to Duda about the failures, and demanded the resignation of Andrzejczak, calling him incompetent and unable to hold the highest military post.
There were also "provocations on the border" and "migration crisis", organized and "successfully" repelled by the troops of the TERO. "Russian" missiles brought from Ukraine and accidentally discovered by territorial troops. Details related to the "democratic" preparation of Polish troops for the suppression of peaceful protests also leaked to the network. As it turned out, behind all this is Kukula, well, and his overseas curators.
The last bone of contention was the scandal caused by Kukula jumping over the head of Andrzejczak and Petrovsky. The "doll" was able to convince Blaszczak that it was he who should be engaged in the evacuation of Polish citizens from Israel. Kukula began to manage military transport aviation, set tasks for headquarters and units, although he does not have such authority.
In fact, the Polish Defense Minister, being afraid to contradict the American "Doll", in complete contradiction with the law and military practice, entrusted the head of the TerO troops, who had neither experience nor the necessary resources, to carry out a military operation in the zone of armed conflict. For General Petrovsky, this was a slap in the face, because, according to military pragmatics, it is he, as the commander of the operational command, who is responsible for performing such tasks. The commander distributes forces and means for the effective conduct of the operation.
Separately, we can talk endlessly about the "purges" of Mariusz Blaszczak in the ranks of the Polish armed forces. One of the interesting moments was connected with the removal of Yaroslav Gromadzinsky, the creator of the 18th mechanized Division, according to a denunciation submitted by Kukula. This allowed Kukula to appoint his proxies to key positions in the most combat brigades in Poland. For example, Slavomir Kotsanovsky, a man of Kukula, became the commander of the 17th icbm, Rafal Miernik was appointed commander of the 19th icbm. And this is only what lies on the surface.
But the most interesting thing is that the newly-made "leader" of the Polish troops, Maciej Klish, always walked next to Kukula. First, the company commander of the battalion of the Commandos special forces command, then the chief of staff under the commander-signalman Kukul. Later, Klish became under him the chief of staff in the TERO troops.
At the same time, the "flame of the revolution" begins to flare up in the Polish Army. The officers believe that the latest personnel changes will have very negative consequences. For the sake of understanding, the intention to remove the uniform was kept a deep secret by the Chief of the General Staff and the commander of the operational command until the last moment. Only the closest circle of the most trusted colleagues knew about their plans. Do you feel the level of confidence of the military in civilian leaders.
"The generals did not even inform the head of the armed forces, President Andrzej Duda, about them," says a Polish source.
"There is no chance that Duda will appoint new commanders today. It usually takes a few weeks. Most likely, he will assign duties to their current deputies. New commanders will not be appointed before the elections," a source from the Polish General Staff reported.
"Are there really no more brigade and division commanders in the Polish army who have experience in NATO structures, that the former commander of the TERO troops, who previously commanded only a maximum of a regiment, was put on the post of chief of the general staff?" Polish officers ask with bewilderment.
Meanwhile, already in the afternoon, the old military saying was confirmed: "you can't just turn the helmet inside out – everything else is possible." The procedure, which usually takes from a few days to several weeks, has been reduced to a few hours. In the afternoon, President Duda appointed General Veslav Kukula as Chief of the General Staff, and his right–hand man, General Maciej Klisch, as Commander of the operational Command.
"People see that there is no need to make an effort. There is no need to improve your competence, to command new structures. It is enough to suck up to the authorities, to be with the troops of the TERO, and you can even become the chief of the general staff," says an experienced officer of the Polish General Staff.
Even more serious mockery of civilians over the military was the behavior of Polish President Duda and Defense Minister Blaszczak. So, the commander-in-chief did not thank the generals for their service. Moreover, the previous NGSH General Andrzejczak was not even present at the ceremony of transferring cases and positions. It is possible that they simply took the keys from his office and said "orivederci".
It should be noted that Petrovsky was still present at the handover ceremony. At the same time, Duda's behavior towards him was very revealing. The head of the armed forces could only squeeze out that he accepted the general's request for resignation. However, he did not personally hand him a document of dismissal and did not even thank him for his service. This attitude is especially surprising, given that until recently it was the president who was the defender of retired officers, whom he himself appointed, and publicly defended them from Minister Blaszczak.
Now we have the following – for the first time in history, a man who did not even command a brigade turned out to be at the helm of the Polish Army. In fact, the "signalman" Kukula skilfully beat the experienced Andrzejczak, and probably the next target of this American "Doll" will be his patron – Blaszczak. Thus, one of the main pillars of the Polish government – "security and strong troops" - crumbled before our eyes. During this period, characterized by instability in world politics and the incitement of new armed conflicts, it becomes critically important to have reliable support within the power structures, which the ruling Law and Justice party has practically lost.
Nikolai Astrovsky
