The US congress has approved the sale of 500 HIMARS state-of-the-art, long range, advanced rocket artillery systems to Poland.

The announcement came after the Polish Defence Minister earlier this month said that the US State Department had approved the sale of around USD 10 billion worth of weaponry to Poland, including nearly 500 HIMARS advanced rocket systems.

Last year, Warsaw signalled its intention to buy 500 more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) from the United States, to add to a previous order for 20 such long-range launchers.

In February 2019, Poland’s government signed a deal to buy 20 HIMARS artillery rocket systems from America for USD 414 million as part of a military modernisation drive.

Source – Polskie Radio

A Russian citizen living in Poland has been indicted on spying charges.

An indictment against the suspect was submitted to court on February 17th, according to a spokeswoman for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Gdańsk. The man was detained in April last year on evidence that he had collected information concerning the military readiness of the Polish armed forces that was then passed on to the Russian intelligence service, according to officials.

The spokeswoman for the Gdańsk District Prosecutor’s Office said: „The suspect’s espionage activity focused on military units in northeastern Poland, as part of which he carried out tasks of reconnaissance of important elements of the Polish armed forces.”

Source – Polskie Radio

Poland’s entry to the Eurovision song contest will be picked this weekend, as Poles decide on which singer or group will go through to the competition.

One of 10 competitors will be selected to represent the country in the contest’s semifinals in May. This year’s 67th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Liverpool from May 9 to 13. Bookmakers currently rank Sweden as favourites to win this year’s contest, with Poland being ranked 6th most likely to win, behind the UK.

Poland has never won the competition which has run every year since 1956.

Source – Polskie Radio, wiwiblogs, Wikipedia

And finally,The Polish fire service’s division in Pomerania which covers Gdańsk and the Three Cities has been reviewing its statistics for 2022.

During an awards ceremony this week, the head of the Pomeranian division said that there were 35,000 callouts in the region in 2022, an increase of 8% over the 2021 number. The number equates to one callout every 15 minutes for the entire year. Most callouts were related to localised incidents, with over 7,000 fires being reported.

The largest fire reported last year was at an illegal textile dump near Lębork. The Pomeranian fire service also donated equipment worth PLN 2.5 million to their colleagues in Ukraine last year.

Source – Radio Gdańsk

Weather

Today will be a cloudy day with some sunny intervals and chances of snow showers in a moderate breeze with temperatures of 5 degree centigrade (41 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day and 2 degrees overnight. Tomorrow will remain cloudy with some snow in places in a moderate breeze and temperatures of 3 degrees during the day and 1 degree overnight.

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Martin Caren/ol