Ukrainian general who gave top cop exploding grenade launcher suspended
The Ukrainian general who gave the head of the Polish police a grenade launcher that exploded has been suspended, Poland’s interior minister said on Tuesday.
Chief of Polish Jaroslaw Szymczyk was taken to hospital when the grenade launcher, given to him as a gift when on a working visit to Ukraine earlier this month, exploded in his Warsaw office, causing some damage to the building and slightly wounding one other person.
Szymczyk told the Rzeczpospolita newspaper last Thursday that he believed the launcher was not loaded and was safe to handle.
"I received information that Gen. D. Bondar, the deputy head of the State Service of Ukraine for Emergency Situations, who was responsible for giving the gift to Gen Jaroslaw Szymczyk, the commander of @PolskaPolicja, has been suspended," Mariusz Kaminski tweeted on Tuesday.
"Criminal proceedings were also initiated in Ukraine in this case."
Szymczyk told the TNPInfo news channel that he did not intend to resign, although he would always stand by any decision taken by the prime minister or the Interior Ministry.
"There was an incident in my office that needs to be thoroughly explained, because a gift I received during a meeting with the heads of one of the most important services responsible for Ukraine's internal security went off," he said.
The media speculated that the police chief may lose his job after the incident, but Kaminski said on Monday that Szymczyk was there to stay. (PAP)
