Classified military documents from a NATO state were reportedly discarded at a landfill near an explosives warehouse in Poland, sparking significant concern and controversy. The incident came to light when hundreds of pages of sensitive Polish military documents, including secret papers on weapons, evacuations, and warehouse blueprints, were discovered in the landfill. These documents, some of which were intact and marked as restricted, raised alarms due to the potential risks they posed.
The scandal surfaced just over a month after Warsaw pledged to outspend all other NATO states, allocating 4.8% of GDP to its army next year. EU governments have increasingly pushed for military buildups, citing an alleged threat from Russia, a claim that Moscow has dismissed. The Polish military denied the report, instead accusing the outlet of holding unauthorized copies of the documents and insisting the originals were properly archived or destroyed.
According to the outlet, an individual handed over the documents after finding them in torn plastic bags at a landfill. While some of the documents were shredded, many were intact and marked “restricted,” it wrote. The leak is described as “a scandal” of the level of “an atomic bomb,” with former commander of the Eurocorps, Lieutenant General Jaroslaw Gromadzinski, calling it a significant threat to national security. Another official, who was granted anonymity, reportedly said that dumping such documents represents gross negligence and “a real threat.”
The recent EU and NATO military buildups and bellicose rhetoric have raised concerns in Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin has maintained that claims that Russia intends to attack the US-led military bloc are “nonsense.” Last month, he sounded the alarm over the deterioration of international security cooperation, and warned of the danger that it will further break down. Despite this, “Russia is capable of responding to any existing and newly emerging threats,” he said.