Official commemorative events for the 13th anniversary of the Smolensk air crash were rescheduled to Sunday due to the actual anniversary day falling on Easter Monday.
A memorial service was held on Sunday morning, after which officials were expected to lay wreaths and light candles at a statue commemorating President Lech Kaczyński in central Warsaw and at a separate monument unveiled last year to honour all 96 victims of the disaster.
A traditional roll call of honour was scheduled to be held in front of the presidential palace in the Polish capital on Wednesday at 8:41 am, the exact time of the disaster on April 10, 2010.
Commemorations are due to conclude in the evening with speech by Jarosław Kaczyński, the head of Poland’s governing Law and Justice (PiS) party and the late president’s twin.
Last Sunday, April 10, marked exactly 13 years since a Polish plane carrying President Lech Kaczyński, his wife and 94 others, including top political and military figures, crashed near Smolensk, western Russia, killing all those on board.
The officials on the ill-fated flight had been on their way to commemorate some 22,000 Polish prisoners of war and intellectuals who were killed in the spring of 1940 on orders from top Soviet authorities in what is known as the Katyn Massacre.
The tragedy remains a deeply polarizing issue in Polish politics, with some groups accusing Russia of being responsible for the crash, while others argue that it was the result of human error or technical failure.
(ał)