On 10 April 2026, at exactly 8.41 p.m. – at the moment when the Tu-154M plane under Smolensk crashed 16 years ago – a central ceremony commemorating 96 victims of the national tragedy began in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw.
The President of the Republic of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, together with the Presidential Couple, placed flowers in front of the memorial plaque. The Polish anthem was sung in the military ace and the names of all 96 people who died on April 10, 2010 on their way to the 70th anniversary of the Katyn crime were subsequently read. The ceremony was attended by representatives of families of victims, clergymen and the management of the Chancellery of the President of Poland.
After the appeal, the President went to Marshal Józef Piłsudski's Square, where he made bundles in front of President Lech Kaczyński's Memorial and in front of the Smolensk Tragedy Memorial 2010.
During the day, the head of the Chancellery of President Zbigniew Bogucki represented the head of state during the Mass in the Seminary Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph and placed flowers at the plaques commemorating the victims in the presidential chapel and on the facade of the Presidential Palace.
In the evening, a solemn mass was held in the Archathedre of St. John the Baptist in the intention of the victims of the disaster, attended by President Karol Nawrocki personally.
In parallel, the management of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland placed flowers on graves of all 96 victims in cemeteries across Poland – among others on Military and Old Powązki in Warsaw, Rakowicki Cemetery in Kraków, Srebrzysk in Gdańsk and necropolis in Wrocław, Lublin and Łódź.
"We Remember" is one word President Nawrocki once published in social media.
The Smolensk disaster of April 10, 2010 took the life of President Lech Kaczyński and his wife Maria, the last president of Poland in exile Ryszard Kaczorowski, ministers, MPs, senators, generals, clergymen, representatives of Katyn families and the crew of the plane. To this day remains one of the biggest tragedies in post-war history of Poland.
Source: President.pl
