As has already been mentioned, the victims of the
Katyn Massacre were not only ethnic Poles.
A total of 96 people perished, including President Lech Kaczynski and a number of high-ranking state officials, as a Polish government plane Tu-154 crashed near Smolensk, Russia, en route to the remembrance ceremonies for the 70th year since the
Katyn Massacre.
The
Katyn massacre of 1940 involved murders at the Katyn forest and
Kaczynski, his wife Maria and 94 others, including many top defense officials and public figures, died Saturday when their TU-154 government aircraft crashed en route to a war memorial service in Russia to commemorate the Polish victims of the 1940
Katyn massacre.
The Tu-154 plane of the Bulgarian government was actually banned from flying starting April 1, 2010, for other reasons but the crash near Smolenski in which an entire high-ranking Polish delegation perished on its way to the
Katyn Massacre remembrance ceremonies has created additional concerns.
First, it sketches the events leading up to the
Katyn massacre in April 1940 and the Nazi discovery of the victims in late March 1943.
"The easiest thing is to put the blame on the pilot because he was in charge but I would abstain from doing that," His Excellency said talking to Bulgarian journalists after the service in the Catholic cathedral in Sofia honoring the memory of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and the other 95 person who died in the horrific crash on their way to the
Katyn Massacre remembrance ceremonies.
the facts involved in the
Katyn Massacre and the responsibility of the
accorded the families of the victims of the
Katyn Massacre.