The Polish commander of Eurocorps, a multinational Nato-EU battlegroup based in France, has been dismissed and recalled to Warsaw to face a counter-intelligence investigation.
Poland’s defence ministry said the probe was to look at “the personal security clearance” of Lieutenant General Jarosław Gromadziński and gather new information about him. Warsaw said it notified its allies “in advance” and the dismissal caused no particular concern.
“There is no concern between us and the allies,” the country’s defence minister Władyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told Polish news channel TVN24 on Thursday. He described the dismissal as a “serious matter”, but insisted that the investigation was only “a process of clarification” without detailing what had prompted it.
Poland has appointed Lieutenant General Piotr Błazeusz as a replacement chief for Eurocorps. “Everything is being done in accordance with procedures,” the minister said.
But a person with knowledge of the decision to remove Gromadziński said it came as “a great surprise” to senior Eurocorps officials. Warsaw provided no further information about the “sensitive issue” the counter-intelligence probe was looking into, the person added.
The Polish defence ministry listed different laws and reasons under which such a counter-intelligence probe can be launched. One of them is “the protection of classified information”.
Gromadziński denied any wrongdoing.
“I believe that the inspection procedure initiated by the military counter-intelligence service will end positively for me,” Gromadziński wrote on social media site X. In his 34 years in the military, “I have always represented the Polish soldier’s uniform with dignity,” he added.
He was assigned last June to lead Eurocorps, which is headquartered in Strasbourg and was set up in 1992 as a Franco-German battlegroup that has since also incorporated military from other countries, including Poland. The Polish commander was recently also involved in overseeing the training of Ukrainian soldiers in Germany.
Before leading Eurocorps, Gromadziński was the commander of Polish troops in Iraq and Syria. He also served within the general staff of the Polish armed forces.
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“It is an internal decision of Poland as a Eurocorps framework nation,” the battlegroup said. “Eurocorps is stable and will continue to fulfil its missions towards Nato and EU.”
The dismissal comes amid heightened security concerns in Warsaw linked to Moscow’s war in Ukraine , including recent breaches of the Polish airspace by Russian missiles.
Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus, this week threatened Poland and other Nato countries bordering Russia and Belarus by asking his military commanders how they were preparing for a potential conflict in the region.