Tomasz Szatkowski, Undersecretary of State at the Polish Ministry of Defence, officially confirmed the media reports, suggesting that several operators of the Polish Special Forces maintain their presence within the territory of Ukraine.Responding to an interpellation submitted by Bartosz Jóźwiak and Tomasz Rzymkowski, Szatkowski stated that a special operations component has been deployed by the JWK [Military Commandos Unit, a Polish special forces unit based in Lubliniec] element […] for the training purposes in the area of the town of Kropyvnytskyi (until July 14th this year under the name of Kirovohrad), located around 500 kilometres from Donetsk and 700 kilometres from Luhansk”.
Responding to an interpellation (a formal request for information submitted by the Polish MPs, in order to ask questions to the current government) submitted by the members of parliament belonging to the Kukiz’15 movement, pertaining to the fact that 18 Polish Commandos of the Lubliniec unit [JW 4101] were supposedly deployed to the Donbas frontline zone, along with an officer of the military counter-intelligence, Tomasz Szatkowski announced that a component formed by the members of the said unit was sent beyond the Poland’s eastern border within the framework of the Joint Multinational Training Group – Ukraine mission.
Polish commandos are to be supposedly stationed in the town of Kropyvnytskyi, around 500 kilometres from Donetsk and 700 kilometres from Luhansk, where they are conducting a training session for a 50-persons-strong company-sized element of the 3rd Special Forces Regiment of the Ukrainian Army, within the scope of tactics for the infantry, firearms training and battlefield medicine.
The presence of the component is a part of the Joint Multinational Training Group – Ukraine initiative, which is a multinational undertaking coordinated by the United States of America. The goal of the programme is to improve the operational capabilities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces through provision of training and transfer of military hardware.
Besides the United States and Poland, Great Britain, Lithuania, Canada and Estonia are also involved in the undertaking, they are also a part of the NATO Special Operations HQ structures. It is worth to note the fact that the Polish Rzeszów-based 21st Highland Brigade has also been involved in the JMTG-U initiative in Ukraine.
Tomasz Szatkowski also assured that the aforesaid component is not tasked with combat or offensive operations, or for the purpose of reinforcing the state or the allies in a peacekeeping operation, or in order to prevent terrorism and diminish its results. The deployment, as Szatkowski stated and stressed, is only focused on provision of training outside the territory of Poland.