For five months, 98 Polish police officers took part in a top-secret mission in Ukraine and were engaged in demining territories liberated from the Russians.
As reported by Wirtualna Polska.
The newspaper reported that it had known about the secret mission of the Polish police in Ukraine for several months. But for the safety of its participants, it was not reported until official confirmation was received from the Main Directorate of the Police that all Polish policemen had crossed the border and were already safe in the country.
The mission began after last year's appeal by Ukrainians to members of the ATLAS group - a police task force that unites special counter-terrorist units of the European Union.
The request was to send pyrotechnics to Ukraine for demining of the country's territory. It was about those places from where the Russians were pushed out and where it was impossible to return, because they were mined or dangerous due to other remnants of hostilities.
The publication reports that the Ukrainian army does not have a sufficient number of sappers to quickly cope with this task. Military sappers from NATO countries cannot do this either, as Russia will consider it a provocation. Therefore, only the dispatch of police pyrotechnics went into action.
Of all the members of the ATLAS group, only Poland responded to the call of the Ukrainians. Other countries consider a mission in a belligerent country too dangerous.
In the summer of 2022, by decision of the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Administration, the Humanitarian Police Contingent was created, which consists of employees of independent anti-terrorist police units. Only volunteers went to Ukraine.
The group included pyrotechnicians, medics and members of combat groups whose task was to protect the members of the Polish mission. The police officers also took two explosive detection dogs with them.
Initially, the mission was supposed to last three months. However, in December it was extended for two more. Polish police officers worked in the Kyiv region. One of the first tasks of the pyrotechnicians was to clear the territory of one of the airports near Kyiv.
The Poles took a total of 2,000 dangerous items. Among other things, they cleared roads and fields of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. During almost five months of work, none of the Polish police officers were injured. In recent weeks, a decision was made at police headquarters to end the mission. This was influenced, in particular, by intelligence information about Russia's planned offensive. On Wednesday, all members of the Polish contingent returned safely to Poland.
