Today we are also ready at any moment to accept aircraft from Poland and provide all possible assistance - A. Kosinets

April 11, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. We are also ready at any moment to urgently receive aircraft from Poland and provide any possible assistance. This was stated to journalists by the Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Alexander Kosinets, according to a BELTA correspondent. According to the governor, the arrival of the first charters became known on the afternoon of April 10. Despite the fact that it was a day off at Vitebsk airport, employees of all its services organized the work to receive the aircraft in the shortest possible time. In addition, ambulances and employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were on duty at the site. In the evening, the airport received two charter flights with Polish citizens heading to the crash site of the government plane near Smolensk. Polish citizens were admitted without visas. Relatives of the deceased and officials arrived, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the brother of the deceased President of Poland, Jarosław Kaczyński. A total of about 50 people. Immediately upon arrival, they proceeded to the site of the plane crash in the Smolensk region by transport provided by the Belarusian side. The Polish delegation was escorted by traffic police patrol cars to the Russian border. Late at night, by an additional charter flight from Vitebsk, members of the Polish delegation, with the exception of the brother of the deceased president, who remained in Smolensk, returned to Warsaw. Employees of the Polish Embassy in Belarus express their immense gratitude to the head of the Belarusian state, as well as to the leadership of the Vitebsk region for the high organization of work on receiving Polish citizens. "Everyone worked very clearly, harmoniously and quickly, for which we are sincerely grateful," they noted. In the morning of April 10, the plane of the President of Poland crashed near Smolensk. On board was a Polish government delegation headed by the country's president, Lech Kaczyński, who was flying with his wife. The delegation included the Vice-Speaker of the Polish Parliament, members of the Polish government, and other high-ranking officials. The delegation was traveling on a private visit to the Smolensk region to participate in memorial events at the Katyn memorial complex, where in 1940 a mass execution of Polish citizens took place. All passengers and crew members – 97 people – died in the plane crash. -0-