Wounded Polish police chief fired a grenade launcher Ukraine gave him as a gift: report
Poland’s police chief Jaroslaw Szymczyk accidentally fired a grenade launcher in his office that he had received from a senior Ukrainian official, slightly wounding him and two others, it was reported on Friday.
Poland’s interior ministry initially said Szymczyk had been hospitalized with minor injuries after a gift he received from a senior Ukrainian official. “exploded” at the police headquarters.
However, the Polish media aforementioned by the Reuters news agency, reported that the “violent release of energy” occurred when the police chief fired the launcher in a serious violation of protocol.
A spokesman for the prosecution said an investigation was opened for “an act consisting of inadvertently causing a violent release of energy that threatened the life or health of many people or property.”
The police chief made an official trip to Ukraine earlier this month.
Szymczyk met with the heads of Ukraine’s police and state emergency services during the visit and “the gift was a gift from one of the heads of Ukraine’s services,” the Interior Ministry said shortly after the incident, without specify what the Polish commander had received. .
A civilian employee of the national police headquarters also suffered minor injuries in the incident that did not require hospitalization and a third person was also slightly injured, Reuters said.
Poland is an ally of Ukraine and has offered the neighboring country various kinds of support, including military and humanitarian aid, since Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24.
Poland has also accepted a large number of Ukrainian refugees.
