New Senior Commanders Appointed to the Polish Armed Forces

Both those officers have a long-standing experience in Polish Special Operations Forces and the Polish Territorial Defence Forces. Wiesław Kukuła was TDF commander until the end of 2022, when he was appointed to the post of General Commander of the Polish Armed Forces. Maciej Klisz was the Chief of Staff, Deputy Commander and the Commander of TDF before he was appointed the Operational Commander of the Polish Armed Forces. Both general Kukuła and general Klisz had served in Polish Special Operations Forces before they were appointed to lead the then-newly formed TDF in 2016-2017.

Those changes are an effect of resignation notices that had been handed by the former Polish Chief of General Staff general Rajmund Andrzejczak and the former Polish Operational Commander of the Armed Forces Lt. gen. Tomasz Piotrowski, both appointed in 2018 by President Andrzej Duda. According to Rzeczpospolita daily, the resignations are the result of an dispute between the MoD and the officers, related to the situation after a Russian missile that had flown into Poland in late 2022 was found near Bydgoszcz in April 2023.

Poland is conducting legislative elections on 15 October.