President Andrzej Duda signed the act on supporting the activities of soldiers and officers

During Thursday's celebration of the Polish Army Day in Warsaw, the president said that he was pleased to be able to sign a law on Wednesday that “will allow the border and other places to be protected even better, more efficiently, also by increasing the safety of Polish soldiers.”

– This is fundamentally important. Thank you for preparing and voting on these regulations. They will soon come into force. I believe that they will facilitate the hard service of our soldiers. They will facilitate the most efficient implementation of tasks – said the president.

The head of the Chancellery of the President confirmed that this refers to the Act of 26 July amending certain acts in order to improve the activities of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland, the Police and the Border Guard in the event of a threat to state security.

The provisions of the so-called act on support for the activities of soldiers and officers provide for the possibility of using the army for independent actions – not only to support the services Ministry of Interior and Administration – in times of peace in the territory of the country.

The regulations introduce the concept of a military operation conducted within the country during peacetime. They also provide legal assistance to soldiers and service officers in the event of proceedings related to their use of weapons. They also regulate, among other things, the principles of detention of soldiers by the Military Police.

The Act also introduces a provision to the Penal Code that excludes liability for acts committed under certain conditions. This concerns the use of weapons or means of direct coercion by a soldier or officer defending the border in violation of the rules, if they were used, among other things, to repel a direct attack on the life, health or freedom of that soldier or another person, as well as to counteract actions aimed at an attack on the life, health or freedom of that soldier or another person.

The condition for recognizing that such action by a soldier or officer is not a crime is the circumstances requiring immediate action. This provision was considered controversial by social organizations – including the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, as well as some politicians, especially the Left.

The regulation was assessed as being poorly constructed, it would constitute a kind of “license to kill” and could lead to soldiers and officers not being punished for actual serious abuses. The Commissioner for Human Rights also raised reservations about some of the proposed regulations.

The government announced a change in the regulations after a situation when, during service at the border with Belarus a soldier was killed by a knife stabbed by a person trying to cross it. Mateusz Sitek was stabbed on May 28.

He was attacked on a section of the border near Dubicze Cerkiewne (Podlaskie) by one of the men who, in a group, were trying to force a steel barrier. When the soldier, using a protective shield, was blocking a breach in the steel barrier, the perpetrator – after putting his hand through the fence – stabbed him in the chest with a knife. The soldier died in hospital on June 6. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of sergeant of the Polish Army and awarded the “Gold Medal of Merit for National Defense”.

The information about this incident coincided with press reports about the arrest of three soldiers for firing warning shots at the border. The prosecutor's office accused two of exceeding their authority and endangering the lives of others. In the following days, the president Andrzej Duda called a meeting of the National Security Council, and the Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that he had obliged the Ministry of National Defense to prepare new regulations that would guarantee clear rules and legal security for soldiers who will be forced to use weapons while serving on the border.