Armed Forces
Promotions in the Armed Forces - General Kukuła Receives the Fourth Star
Photo. Jakub Borowski
Chief of the General Staff General Wiesław Kukuła was promoted to the highest general rank in the Polish Armed Forces. The promotions in the Army and other uniformed services have been announced on Tuesday, by the Presidential National Security Bureau.
“Andrzej Duda, Polish President decided to promote 12 officers of the Polish Armed Forces, 1 officer of Military Counterintelligence, one officer of the State Protection Service (SOP), one officer of Border Guard, and two officers of Prison Service to general ranks”, National Security Bureau reported. The promotion acts were presented at the Presidential Palace on 9th November, before National Independence Day. Kukuła was promoted to general rank.
Among other officers, the commander of the 2nd Polish Corps, Commander of the Land Component Div. General Adam Joks, received the General of the Branch rank. Previously he was acting in the capacity of deputy commander of the US Army V Corps.
Division General Rank promotions were handed to the Dean/Commander at the War Studies University Brig. General Robert Kosowski, Defence Attaché in the US, Brig. General Krzysztof Nolbert, and commander of the 16th Mechanized Division, Brig. General Wojciech Ziółkowski.
Commander of the 12th Mechanized Brigade Col. Dariusz Czekaj, Commander of the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade Col. Mirosław Downar, commander of the 1st „Mazurska” Artillery Brigade col. Mariusz Majerski, Deputy Director at the Polish MoD’s Infrastructure Department col. Jacek Sankowski, Defence Attaché to the UK, col. Michał Sprengel, first deputy commander of the Territorial Defence Component col. Krzysztof Stańczyk, Deputy Chief of Staff for support, head of division for the 2nd Polish Corps-Land Component Command Col. Piotr Waniek all received their first General rank promotions.
Col. Maciej Szpanowski was, meanwhile, promoted to Brig. General rank - he is the head of the Military Counterintelligence service.
General Kukuła took over the responsibilities of the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, as Andrzej Duda, the Polish President assigned him to take over that position from General Rajmund Andrzejczak who submitted a notice before the end of his second term remaining at the top position in the Polish Armed Forces, simultaneously with the Operational Commander, Branch General Tomasz Piotrowski.
Starting in February this year, Kukuła became the General Commander of the Armed Forces. He was the creator and the first commander of the Territorial Defence component, brought to life in early 2017, during two full terms of office. Before taking over the WOT branch, he was the commander of the Lubliniec-based Commandos. He graduated from the Higher Officer School of Communications in Zegrze; he served in Iraq, and at the Special Operations Command.
He was a strong proponent of increasing the number of troops in the Armed Forces, considering the „small but lethal” paradigm to be false. As he stated during the Defence24 DAY conference in May 2023, people who are controlling modern weapons are the most lethal asset on the battlefield, and thus it is of key importance, as he noted, to create a 300-thousand men strong Army and develop proper reserves.
He was also a strong supporter of the Act on Homeland Defence, claiming it was a baseline model for common state defence. He was eager to welcome new formats of military service, including the voluntary general military service, and active reserves.