Explosion of a grenade launcher at the Police Headquarters. The expert's conclusions undermine Jarosław Szymczyk's version

The explosion at the Police Headquarters took place in mid-December 2022. after the visit of Chief Commander Jarosław Szymczyk in Ukraine. As he himself explained, he received grenade launchers as a gift from the heads of the local services, which were supposed to be used, and he brought them to Poland. One of them exploded in the back of his office. Szymczyk was taken to hospital. He remained the Chief Commander of the Police until December 2023.

Photos of the grenade launcher and the destroyed room in the Police Headquarters were published in September last year by KO politician Krzysztof Brejza.

The case of the grenade launcher explosion at the Police Headquarters is being investigated by investigators. “Rzeczpospolita” has obtained a comprehensive expert opinion on military weapons testing, which was submitted to the prosecutor's office. The expert from the Military Institute of Armament Technology ruled out the possibility that the grenade launcher detonated on its own or as a result of an accident.

The grenade launcher “was functional and armed”, “it was fired by pressing the trigger,” prosecutor Jacek Mularzuk, deputy press spokesman, told the newspaper. “However, the fired missile was not able to arm itself under the conditions of its firing, which resulted in the explosion of the explosive material contained in it,” he added.

As “Rzeczpospolita” writes, “only because the grenade launcher failed to arm itself, the effects of the explosion were relatively minor.”

He also notes that the expert's opinion “casts doubt on Szymczyk's version, who said after the incident that the 'gift' lying flat on the floor exploded when he wanted to move it because it was obstructing the passage”.

In July 2023, Szymczyk emphasized on Polsat News that “no one pulled the trigger of the grenade launcher.” This contradicts the expert opinion cited by “Rzeczpospolita.”

Investigators are still trying to determine how it happened that the grenade launcher, which was supposed to be a fake, was in fact armed with a working projectile. – According to the legal assistance provided by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, representatives of the local authorities gave Jarosław Szymczyk a used military weapon, assuring him that it was safe – said prosecutor Mularzuk.

According to “Rzeczpospolita”, “investigators rule out the possibility that the Ukrainians deliberately gave the commander a working grenade launcher, misleading him”. “Polish-Ukrainian relations were good, the Polish police helped, for example, document Russian war crimes, and the visit was arranged in gratitude”, the newspaper recalls.

According to investigators, there are two possible options: “either there was a bizarre mistake – the Ukrainians were actually convinced that the tube was empty, but there were, for example, two tubes in the room, one empty, the other full, and someone 'on the last stretch' mixed them up. Or someone other than the gift giver swapped the tubes, i.e. a so-called sabotage occurred. This is still being investigated” – we read in “Rzeczpospolita”.