Russia to face hosts Poland in Euro 2012

Russia will play co-hosts Poland, Greece and Czech Republic in Group A at Euro 2012. The draw has been kind to Russia as all the group opponents are lower-ranked, and it escaped the tournament’s stronger teams. The fans, however, will be upset that the games are not in Ukraine, where they need no visa and everyone speaks Russian.

Since 1992 Russia only lost two out of 14 games in total against Group A opponents Poland, Greece and Czech Republic, drawing five and winning seven, according to Opta stats. They scored an average of 1.6 goals per game, and failed to score only twice.

Russian midfielder Igor Semshov was pleased with the draw.

“We could only have dreamt about such a group,” he told Sovietsky Sport. “It was a lucky draw, the most optimal group. What happens in the games is a different issue, but the draw, you can say, favours Russia. Everything depends on us alone.”

“All four [coaches] are happy with the group, because everybody can beat each other. So, with that in mind, we're looking forward to the first game. It's the third consecutive time that Russia have been drawn with Greece in the group stage of the Euros, so we're familiar rivals.”

Group B has Germany and Netherlands, Portugal and Denmark. Group C has current European and World Champions Spain, Italy, Croatia and Republic of Ireland. Group D includes hosts Ukraine, England, Sweden and France.

Russia was hoping to play in Russian-speaking Ukraine where no visa is needed for the fans and any game would have practically turned into a home match. The team has also chosen a base in Kiev, but will now have to travel a thousand kilometers for games in Wroclaw in Western Poland and more than 700 kilometers to Warsaw.

Russia’s first game will be at the Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw against Czech Republic, while Poland will open the tournament with a match against Greece in Warsaw, on June, 8. Dick Advocaat’s men then travel to Warsaw where they will play Poland on June, 12 and Greece on June 16 at the National Stadium.

Top two teams in each group go through to the quarterfinals, and should Russia succeed, it will meet one of the survivors from the Group of Death - World Cup runners-up Netherlands, third-placed Germany, Portugal and Denmark.

Hosts Poland will play in front of the home crowd, and boast Arsenal goalkeeping duo Wojciech Szczesny and Łukasz Fabiański and Bundesliga champions with Borussia Dortmund Robert Lewandowski, Lukasz Piszczek and Jakub Błaszczykowski. Poland is ranked 66^th in FIFA ratings, but such a low placing is deceptive, as they did not play any competitive matches in the last two years, having qualified for the tournament as hosts.

Greece, ranked 14^th, were surprising Euro 2004 Champions, and last played Russia in a friendly 1:1 draw in November. Greece topped their qualification group and while it does not have household names in the line-up, its game is based on organized defense. Russia was the only side to beat Greece at Euro 2004, in the group stage.

Czech Republic, ranked 33^rd, conceded on average one goal a game in the qualification campaign, and got to the finals by beating Montenegro in the play-offs, captained by Arsenal’s Tomas Rosicky.

The tournament will run for three weeks from June, 8 to July, 1. Eight cities will host games: Warsaw, Wroclaw, Gdansk and Poznan in Poland; Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lviv in Ukraine.

The final will be played on July, 1 in Kiev at Olimpiisky Stadium.

Euro 2012: Are Poland And Ukraine Ready To Host Festival Of Football?

KIEV, Ukraine -- On Friday the countdown will officially begin to soccer's Euro 2012 finals -- arguably the climax to the second biggest festival of football on the planet behind the World Cup.

he draw for the co-hosted tournament will be held in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, and football fans across the continent will learn the fate of their beloved nations.

It will kick off a six-month countdown to the date of the first game on June 8, to be held in the Polish city of Warsaw. The final will be held in Kiev on July 1.

Amid the excitement, critics have questioned whether the stadiums and infrastructure will be delivered on time for the visit of thousands of fans to Eastern Europe.

Here, CNN examines the myriad of issues on the field, and off it.

What is the European Championship?

The competition was born in 1960 and is held every four years.

It sees Europe's top soccer nations battle it out to be crowned the continent's best team.

There is a two-year-long qualification period, at the end of which 16 teams make the finals.

They are then drawn into four groups of four, with the top two teams progressing from the group to the quarterfinal stage.

The last installment, hosted by Switzerland and Austria in 2008, saw Spain beat Germany 1-0 in the final.

Which venues will stage the games?

There are four stadiums in each country that will host games.

Poland's newly built National Stadium in Warsaw will stage the opening game, while the PGE Arena in Gdansk and the Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw have also been constructed specially for the tournament.

Poznan's Municipal Stadium will also host games.

In Ukraine, Kiev's Olympic Stadium has the honor of the final, while the Donbass Arena in Donetsk, the Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv and the brand new Lviv Arena will also stage games.

What are the fears surrounding the tournament?

Euro 2012 was awarded to Poland and Ukraine by European football's governing body UEFA in 2007 -- the first time Eastern Europe has been called upon to host a major football tournament.

But their preparations have been criticized for the delayed building of stadiums and infrastructure projects necessary to support the thousands of fans that will descend on both countries come June.

As early as 2008, UEFA president Michel Platini was speaking of the need to resolve problems with the project, saying of Ukraine he had to "wake them up a little" and tell them to "get going."

Despite rumors that Scotland offered to step in should the tournament be taken away from Ukraine, Platini said it would remain with the its original hosts.

There are still issues to resolve around the stadium in Lviv, with Polish authorities facing similar concerns over their brand new Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw.

Ukrainian deputy prime minister Boris Kolesnikov told CNN World Sport's Pedro Pinto this week that at no stage did he think the tournament would be stripped from his country: "Neither the president nor the government feared they'd lose the right to host the championship.

Of course we were a little bit scared to physically not be on schedule.

Our sleepless nights, there have been too many to say, but construction has kept going 24/7 during the last 15 months."

But World Soccer's Gavin Hamilton told CNN that Ukraine's focus on getting the stadiums ready has come at the expense of the infrastructure needed to stage the event.

"The concern is that externally, outside of the stadiums, the transport infrastructure hasn't been brought up to speed, there aren't enough hotels.

"So there will be trouble for fans getting around the tournament. As far as UEFA are concerned, in terms of putting on a television spectacle for the world, Ukraine has done a very good job in getting the stadiums ready."

What has CNN discovered in Ukraine?

On a whistle-stop tour of the four cities and stadiums that will host matches in Ukraine, Pinto said he had been impressed with the football arenas but found that some building projects were still battling to be ready, such as the one at Lviv airport, where construction on a new terminal and a lengthened runway continues 24 hours a day.

He said: "Having spent the last week traveling across both countries I can tell you that if you are a football supporter, you needn't worry. The stadiums look great and although some of the roads and railways may not be completed by the start of the tournament, enough progress will have been made to make the fan experience a good one."

What are the costs involved?

According to UEFA figures, revenues taken during the 2008 tournament were $1.7 billion, with an estimated television audience of 4.8 billion for the 31 matches.

The final was broadcast to 231 countries around the world.

Speculation in Ukraine, from the Kyiv Post, claims the country's total cost of staging Euro 2012 is $14.5 billion, paid for by a combination of private and public money.

The paper claims Poland's estimated costs are in the region of $30 billion.

Mikolaj Piotrowski, communications director for PL.2012 -- the national coordinating company for Euro 2012 in Poland -- told CNN:

"The investment, thanks to Euro 2012, has accelerated infrastructure development in this country by three to five years. The overall cost has been $27 billion and has made Poland the largest construction site in Europe."

Yury Gromnitsky, head of the press office for the vice-prime minister of Ukraine, told CNN:

"Ukraine has invested $750 million in sport infrastructure to host Euro 2012, not including the cost of the airport and transportation infrastructure. But being host has really acted as a catalyst for this development to take place."

All four airports in Ukraine's host cities are being revamped, while a series of new hotel developments have also been built -- 67 in Donetsk alone.

A high-speed rail link will be in operation to ferry fans between host cities, and new road networks have also been built.

Yanukovych to visit Poland next week

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Nov. 15 will visit Poland, where he together with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and President of the Federal Republic of Germany Christian Wulff will attend the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the University of Wroclaw, Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Serhiy Liovochkin has said.

The University of Wroclaw is closely connected with Ukraine.

"After the World War II, Polish scientists from Lviv University became its instructors. Today Ukrainian students study at Wroclaw University, the university has partnership relations with Ivan Franko National University of Lviv," said the presidential press service.

During Yanukovych's visit, relations between Ukraine, Poland and Germany will be discussed.

Poland acknowledges it's pilot's fault

The Polish government commission has published its conclusions on the causes of the crash of the Tu-154 near Smolensk. Despite the attempt to shift some of the blame on Russia, for the most part the position of the Poles coincides with the findings of the commission of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC).


The airplane of the Polish President Lech Kaczynski's Tu-154 crashed during landing at an airfield near Smolensk North in the morning of April 10, 2010. During the landing it caught the tops of the trees due to a low visibility caused by a heavy fog. There were 96 people on board - 88 passengers and eight crew members. None have survived.

On January 12 of this year, the Interstate Aviation Committee issued a final report on the results of the technical investigation of the accident, according to which the immediate cause of the crash was the decision of the crew not to go to the alternate airport, as well as systemic factors such as shortcomings in providing flight crew with training.


According to experts of the IAC, the crew had to take the reports of adverse weather conditions into account. According to the Chairman of the IAC Tatyana Anodina, despite the warnings of adverse meteorological conditions at the destination aerodrome, the crew of the Tu-154 has not taken a decision to go to an alternate airfield. At the same time, said Transport Minister Igor Levitin, the Russian managers were unable to prevent the special aircraft from landing as the decision in such situation is taken by the Captain.

In addition, as stated by the chairman of the IAC, the crew was not prepared for the critical flight. According to her, the crew

At some point, the chances to avoid the catastrophe were virtually nil, according to the IAC. The maneuver to avoid a collision with an obstacle was made by the crew at the last minute. The maneuver was very sharp, and the flight recorder recorded that at the time of the collision with a birch tree the aircraft was beyond the operational angles of attack, said the head of the Technical Committee IAC Alexei Morozov. He added that if there had been no clash with the birch, most likely in two or three seconds, the aircraft would have reached the regime of the so-called stall and subsequently collided with the ground.

In addition, it was established that at the time of landing Air Force Commander of Poland Andrzej Blasik was in the cockpit. According to the conclusions of the experts, his presence put pressure on the pilots and influenced their decision to land the plane at Smolensk, at any cost, despite the warnings from the air traffic controllers.


The report of the Interstate Aviation Committee in Poland received various responses. For example, the brother of the deceased president, Jaroslaw Kaczynski said at a session of the Seim that the direct causes of the tragedy were the responsibility of the Russian side. Polish opposition tried to use the tragedy in Smolensk for its own purposes. It looked so cynical that the Prime Minister Donald Tusk had to calm down some MPs and politicians with their anti-Russian rhetoric. He stated that the truth of the catastrophe cannot be a pretext for a political adventure.

At the same time, the experts, including Polish ones, agreed that the investigation was conducted competently and eliminated any questions about the causes of the tragedy near Smolensk.
"The committee, which conducted the investigation, coped with the task professionally," said the head of Yates Consulting, British aviation expert Chris Yeyts. The Committee concluded that, in the first place, the fault lies with the Polish pilot and his assistant. In the transcription of the conversations between the pilot and those who were on the ground during the last attempt at a landing, lies an important detail: the landing at the airport was not possible.

The British expert is convinced that with this information, the pilot had to follow the instructions of the controller and go to a nearby airport, where conditions were better for a touchdown.

"The pilot's error is the main cause of the crash. There were also problems with the preparation for the visit. I would say that it was not the pressure on the military pilots, but the mistakes and failures in their work led to the tragedy," said a Polish military expert, a former Air Force pilot Michal Poland Fizer. "The lack of experience in flight is one thing, but lack of life experience is another. When you're thirty-five, you have no life experience and a lot of ambition. You're trying to do the job because the president expects you to land the plane in a certain place. And you want to prove to him that you are able to do it. "

The accredited representative of Poland at the MAC Edmund Klich shares this opinion. "I am sure that most of the causes of the crash near Smolensk are on us. We cannot even talk about any misconduct on the part of Russia," he said. "A good crew with a good aircraft (there was no information that the Tu- 154 was defective) cannot land this way. Even if there were different orders from the team".

Similar conclusions were reached by the Polish government commission that investigated the causes of the catastrophe whose final report was published on Friday, July 29. Earlier, the head of the commission, the Interior Minister Jerzy Miller has repeatedly stated that, based on the data available to the Commission, the main fault lies with the Polish side. Miller warned that the report will be "harsh" and "painful" for Poland.

Nevertheless, the report states that "the airport did not provide the flight safety, including, due to poor visibility." It is not clear how the airport services could have affected the fog. In addition, as already stated, the decision to land was made by the crew, and not under pressure of the Russian dispatchers.

Another discrepancy with the report of the IAC is that, according to the Polish commission, a warning system TAWS was not configured on the presidential airplane. "TAWS unit was poorly prepared for a flight to Smolensk. Its preparation and activation was the responsibility of the co-pilot", said the experts presenting the report in Warsaw. At the same time, IAC reported earlier that, as established by professionals, TAWS system and onboard computers on the plane of President Kaczynski were in good condition. The tests were conducted in the laboratory of Research Center UASC in the U.S. "It is established that the equipment in flight on April 10 has been properly installed and provided the crew and aircraft systems with necessary information", stated MAC.

However, in general, the report of the Polish Commission coincides with that of the MAC. According to the findings of the Poles, the crew did not want to land, it wanted to test the landing, which proved fatal. "The crew had no opportunity to go to the second round," the document says.

As for the presence of head of the Air Force in the cockpit, the "Polish commission found no evidence that the head of the Air Force immediately put pressure on the crew to land the plane. Nevertheless, the crew was under pressure because of the high-level flight and due to the fact that the first person in the country was on board." However, the following conclusion was also made: "The work of the crew was chaotic, a third party interfered in the work by his appearance in the cockpit, the pilot, the commander was busy with radio communication."

The pilots were not paying attention to the TAWS, which was operational. "The crew ignored the warning of the TAWS. The landing procedure was taken at 60 meters below the permissible level," the report says.

In addition, the experts of the Polish Commission believe that the pilots did not respond to an error in the "test landing", and the commander of the crew made a wrong call.

Polish experts strongly agreed with the conclusions of the IAC in regards with bad preparation of the Air Force pilots of the country. "Errors in the preparation of the pilots, their training, created a threat. The control over their training was inadequate," says the report.

The conclusions of the Polish Commission shall affect neither the political situation in the country, nor the relationship between Poland and Russia as they are fundamentally not different from the findings of the MAC. "We have investigated the causes of the incident, and not the fault of the parties. The Commission does not investigate who was responsible for the catastrophe," said Jerzy Miller, Poland's Interior Minister, answering a reporter's question whether Russian or Polish side and to what extent was responsible for the tragedy at Smolensk.

However, most likely, the Polish opposition will once again try to use the report for its own purposes, playing, as usual, the anti-Russian card. However, the tragedy took place more than a year ago, and all who wanted have already formulated their view on this subject. The political hysteria, even if happens, will quickly subside.

Poland prepares to go on crusade against Russia

Poland has become the chairing state of the European Union on July 1. The plans of the Polish administration leave no doubt about the fact that the country will primarily be concentrated on the eastern direction of its foreign policy. In particular, Poland will do its best to pull Ukraine and Belarus apart from Russia.

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk shared the ideas about the goals of the country's presidency at the EU several days ago. During his speech in the parliament, Mr. Tusk said that Poland was supposed to become the new engine of the European Union. When speaking about priorities, Tusk particularly mentioned the signing of the agreement of association between the EU and Ukraine. The first priority for Poland will be the reanimation of Eastern Partnership Program, the anti-Russian undertone of which was obvious a long time ago.

The program was proposed three years ago by foreign ministers of Poland and Sweden. It unites Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldavia, Ukraine and Belarus. All these countries were promised the following: economic assistance, simplified visa regime, the establishment of the free trade zone and special relations. No one has ever asked Russia to join the program. Therefore, the program is an attempt to create a zone of EU influence near Russia's western and southern borders.

Poland attaches great importance to the Eastern Partnership Program indeed. It can be seen even on the website of the Polish Embassy in Moscow. The website has a special section devoted to the program. The website particularly says that the European Commission has assigned 700 million euros for the program, but the Poles intend to seek more. The central event to be held during the Polish presidency is the summit of the Eastern Partnership, which is slated to take place in Warsaw on September 29-30 of this year.

"Eastern Partnership is a historical chance for Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldavia...For the first time in history, the countries of Eastern Europe will have an opportunity of close economic and political integration with the European Union...The cooperation is based on common values, such as freedom, democracy, the supremacy of law and human rights," the website of the Polish embassy says.

In addition, Poland will create the international solidarity fund during its presidency. The fund will deal with the promotion of democracy in other regions of the world. The first "client" of the fund is Belarus. The EU toughened sanctions against this country, and Poland had had no small share in that. The Poles have not left North Africa out of attention either. African "fighters for freedom" will also have the honor of enjoying Poland's attention.

There is a contradictory detail to all that, though. Alexander Lukashenko, "Europe's last dictator," the "suppressor of freedom" and his Belarus are listed as members of the Eastern Partnership Program. Lukashenko was barred from traveling to the countries of the European Union. However, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on June 27 that Belarus would be invited to the summit of the partnership on the top level.

Here we go. Democracy is democracy, but geopolitics is geopolitics. Lukashenko is a bad guy, but they just turn a blind eye on it for Eastern Partnership. It is also interesting that the Poles do not say a word about Russia in the program.

Pravda.Ru asked expert opinion from Mr. Bogdan Bezpalko, a historian at the historical department of the Moscow State University, an expert for Poland.

"What do you think could be an explanation to the fact that for Eastern Partnership, the Poles are ready to shrug off the fact that Belarusian politicians are not allowed to enter EU states?"

"Geopolitics always stipulates double standards. If there's a need to use military force, they speak about national interests. If they need to interfere in other countries' affairs, they speak about democracy. This is the situation about Poland's approach towards Belarus. The cooperation within the framework of the partnership does not cancel Poland's intention to show influence on political affairs in Belarus to promote democracy there."

"Does Poland want to create its sphere of influence in the east of Europe with the help of Eastern Partnership?"

"This is exactly so. Historically, Poland considers Ukraine and Belarus its sphere of influence, and the country dreams to have it back. The Poles have another goal - to turn Eastern Europe into the main region of the European Union. Poland has been striving for its leadership in the region, and they will try to use their presidency in the EU to anchor this leadership.

"How do Belarus and Ukraine treat Poland's Napoleonic plans about themselves?"

"When Russia is putting pressure on Belarus, there is a risk that Belarus will eventually turn towards Poland and the European Union. The administration of Belarus is willing to cooperate with Russia, but they are also interested in cooperating with the West. The Ukrainian administration has changed, but the country is still interested in having special relations with Poland. Ukraine also wants to become a member of the European Union. Ukraine has been cooperating with NATO actively. Even if it never becomes a NATO member, it will remain close to the alliance."

"How can you explain the fact that Poland does not mention Russia at all in the description of Eastern Partnership Program?"

"This program does not take account of Russia's interests at all. Poland tries not to consider Russia as a serious entity in Europe and Eurasia. They also continue to perceive us as a geopolitical rival. It has been so for many centuries, and it still remains so today."

"Poland wants to set up the international solidarity fund. Do they really want to democratize North Africa?"

"They most likely speak about North Africa to attract more attention. Poland is the staunchest ally of the United States in Eastern Europe, so it has to confirm it. However, this is most likely nothing but a declaration. North Africa is a prerogative of the USA and several countries in Western Europe. Poland is more concentrated on Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, Central Europe, Moldavia and the Caucasus."

"Do you think that Poland's presidency at the EU will aggravate the relations between Russia and the European Union?"

"The relations between Russia and the EU will most likely become more intense because of Poland. Poland will be attracting more attention to these ties, but they are not going to be ruined."

Polish Prime Minister: Ukraine Showed Willingness To Go The European Way

KIEV, Ukraine -- Head of the Polish government Donald Tusk believes that Ukraine will sign an Association agreement with the European Union by the end of this year under the presidency of Poland in the EU.

Prime Minister Tusk noted progress in Ukraine - EU relations and expressed his belief that the chance to finalize the talks on them is real.

He also suggested that the signing of association and free trade zone agreement will become a real milestone for Ukraine on its way to the EU.

"Ukraine, despite the change of leadership in the recent elections showed the willingness to go the European way, and Europe understands this better every time", said the Polish prime minister.

Tusk said that Poland during the EU presidency in the second half of 2011 would support the introduction of the new EU countries from the region of the Balkans and Eastern Europe

On May 17 this year Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who came to Ukraine and toured the facilities currently being prepared for the UEFA Euro 2012 football tournament, voiced his support for the Association Agreement during a joint press conference held in Lviv (Western Ukraine - Ed.) between the Polish and Ukrainian foreign ministers saying: "We want to ensure that during the upcoming Polish presidency of the EU Council, [the agreement] has made another leap."

Last week Poland hosted the 17th Central and Eastern European Summit.

The event was attended by the Presidents and high officials of 19 countries from Central and Eastern Europe and the US President, Barack Obama as a special guest.

During the Summit President Yanukovych stressed that Ukraine was focused on implementing reforms and paid special attention to economic transformation.

So far the new Ukrainian leadership identified and started implementing the reforms in such key areas as taxation, administration, anti-corruption and pension.

The administrative reform reduced the number of public servants by reorganizing the ministries and decreasing their number by a third.

Shortly afterwards, the Law on Principles of Prevention and Combating Corruption in Ukraine was adopted and Ukraine has introduced the Law on Access to Public Information.

Ukraine To Sign EU Agreement During Poland’s Presidency?

WARSAW, Poland -- Ukraine has indicated that it aims to sign an associate agreement with the EU during Poland’s presidency of the European Council in the second half of this year.
At a joint press conference attended by Polish and Ukrainian foreign ministers in Kiev on Monday, Poland’s head of diplomacy Radek Sikorski said that “We want to ensure that during the upcoming Polish presidency of the EU [Ukraine’s relations with the EU] takes another leap forward.”

However an EU-Ukraine summit to hammer out the deal, which was going to take place this September, has been put back to December, prompting a ‘high ranking official’ to tell the Kommersant-Ukraina newspaper last month that, “I'm not sure that we will be able to finalize taks”.

An EU official told the same newspaper that Brussels suspects Ukraine of playing ‘double-bluff’ with both the EU and Russia, which Kiev wants to conclude a customs agreement with.

Poland’s six-month presidency begins on 1 July.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on a recent trip to the Balkans that he hopes to conclude accession talks with Croatia this year as well.

Russia hands over Katyn files

The Russian prosecutor’s office has handed over 11 volumes of declassified documents to Poland, containing information about 20,000 Polish prisoners of war massacred in western Russia in 1940.

They contain the conviction and burial certificates and lay to rest Soviet claims that the German were responsible, RIA Novosti reported.

In the 1990s, Russia handed over to Poland copies of archive documents from the top-secret File No.1, which placed the blame solely on the Soviet Union. In September 1990, Russian prosecutors also launched a criminal case into the massacre, known as “Case No.159”. The investigation was closed in 2004.

In November 2010, lawmakers from the lower house of Russia’s parliament approved a declaration recognizing the Katyn massacre as a crime committed by Josef Stalin’s regime. Poland has hailed the move.

Poland, Ukraine Count Down To Euro 2012

WARSAW, Poland -- Locked deep in winter, Poland and Ukraine are fixing their focus squarely on the summer of 2012, when Europe’s top football showcase is staged behind the former Iron Curtain for the first time.
Euro 2012 kicks off in Warsaw on June 8 that year and ends with the final in Ukraine’s capital Kiev on July 1.

On paper, that leaves 500 days to get ready. But the hosts aim to have the pieces of the puzzle in place by the end of 2011.

Marcin Herra, at the helm of Poland’s preparations, said January to May 2012 will be devoted to ironing out problems.

From their glass-and-steel Warsaw office, Herra’s team have an impressive view of the city-centre construction site of Poland’s national stadium, 10 kilometres (six miles) down the River Vistula.

Their walls are plastered with complex charts plotting progress in dozens of projects, from venues and training grounds, to highways, airport terminals and hotels to cope with an expected 1.2 million fans.

“There’s a big difference when we compare the beginning of 2008, when only one or two investments were under construction,” former oil-industry executive Herra told AFP.

“We expect that 100 percent will be under construction in the first half of 2011. Poland’s the biggest construction site in Europe. There’s a huge amount of work, and it’s very, very visible,” he added.

In 2007, European football’s governing body UEFA caught pundits napping when it chose Poland and Ukraine over favourites Italy and joint bidders Hungary and Croatia to host the quadrennial, 16-team championship.

It marks UEFA’s first serious foray into the ex-communist bloc -- a step shadowed by FIFA in naming Russia to host the 2018 World Cup.

Euro 2008 took place in the comfort zone of Austria and Switzerland, while Euro 2016 will be held in France.

The communist era may lie two decades in the past, but Poland and, to a greater extent, Ukraine face challenges beyond anything in western European host nations.

They have understood that from the start.

“In 2007, we were fully aware that only the first half of the match, against the other bidders, was over,” said Adam Olkowicz, director of the Polish arm of the tournament and deputy president of Poland’s football association.

“In the second half, our only opponent is time,” he underlined.

Poland and Ukraine have been bedevilled by doubters from the outset.

“In 2008 there was a first report by UEFA, and it gave a yellow card. And because of that, the message which went out to the world was that this is high risk. So it’s always difficult to change this,” said Herra.

As recently as April 2010, UEFA chief Michel Platini warned the Ukrianians that if stadium plans in Kiev went awry they would lose their host status.

By August, however, he said the ultimatum had expired.

Ukrainian officials says Kiev’s stadium should open by August 24, in time for the 20th anniversary of independence from the crumbling Soviet Union.

“Today there is no risk, not for the tournament in Ukraine, nor for any serious component of it,” said Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Borys Kolesnikov, who holds the Euro 2012 portfolio.

Martin Kallen, UEFA’s Euro watchdog, said risks are part and parcel of any edition.

“Alarm bells never disappear 100 percent,” he said. “You always have to be very careful until the end. But everything looks promising,” he said. “But it’s also not the most important thing that everything in all areas is delivered as planned. If they bring 90 percent or so, we’ll be very happy,” he added.

Investments in Poland tally 80bn zloty (20.6bn euros, $27.6bn), largely in the transport sector.

Ukraine And Poland To Revive Odessa-Brody Pipeline

KIEV, Ukraine -- The Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov and the Marshal of the Polish Senate Bogdan Borusevich discussed the plans of the two countries to revive the use of the Odessa-Brody pipeline.
The high officials also mentioned a possibility of constructing a new leg of the pipeline. Presumably, it will stretch all the way to the Northern Polish city of Gdansk, and thus will make one step forward towards the establishment of a new route to transport the Caspian oil to the EU countries.

During his meeting with Mykola Azarov, Bogdan Borusevich stated that he considers the stretching of the Odessa-Brody pipeline to Gdansk, Poland, being prospective. Borusevich mentioned that realization of the project will become ever more relevant for Poland now that oil transfers through Druzhba pipeline might get reduced.

Druzhba is the world's largest pipeline system carrying oil from European Russia through Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Germany. Marshal also pointed out that Polish investors have purchased oil refinery in Lithuania.

In this respect there is a possibility to build a branch of the Odesa-Brody pipeline to the refinery.

"The Ukrainian side has already built its part of the pipeline, but Poland, unfortunately, has not", Borusevich added. "I was pleased to hear that Azarov's government is interested in the Polish-Ukrainian cooperation on this and other projects in the field of energy security".

On November 23, 2010, the Ukrtransnafta company completed the testing of the Odesa-Brody pipeline in the direction of Druzhba's southern branch. In 2009, a Polish pipeline company Sarmatia made a prediction that the construction of the conduct pipe in question would reach Plotsk and Gdansk before 2012.

The Odesa-Brody pipeline is a crude oil pipeline between the Ukrainian cities of Odesa on the Black Sea, and Brody near the Ukrainian-Polish border.

The usage and the direction of the Odessa-Brody pipeline is viewed to be of considerable geopolitical significance, since it provides a new route to diversify oil supplies to the EU.

The pipeline was originally intended to reach Gdansk in order to transfer oil from the Caspian Sea (mainly from Kazakhstan) to the Polish Baltic Sea port and from there to the rest of Europe.

Euro 2012 On Track, Say Poland And Ukraine

WARSAW, Poland -- Preparations for Euro 2012 are right on schedule, tournament co-hosts Poland and Ukraine said on Thursday.
"Taking full responsibility, we can say that everything is going according to UEFA's plans, and that the matches will take place in eight cities, four in Poland and four in Ukraine," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said during a visit by his Ukrainian opposite number Mykola Azarov.

"We can congratulate each other, with a clear conscience," he told reporters.

The two leaders said that they had approved a road map for the remaining preparations for the European football championships, which are set to kick off in Poland's brand new national stadium in Warsaw in June 8, 2012

In April 2007, European football's governing body UEFA caught the pundits napping when it picked Poland and Ukraine over favourites Italy and joint bidders Hungary and Croatia to host the 16-team quadrennial showcase.

It will be the first time either has run a major tournament and marks UEFA's first serious foray behind the former Iron Curtain.

That means a far greater challenge on the infrastructure front than previous, western European editions of the tournament, last held in 2008 in Alpine-efficient Austria and Switzerland.

Amid concerns about the ability of the hosts, particularly Ukraine, to make the grade in time, UEFA chief Michel Platini cranked up the pressure and issued a string of ultimatums.

But the tone has now changed.

"I think things are progressing in the right direction," Martin Kallen, UEFA's Euro watchdog, told AFP last month.

"The decision was made in 2007 to go for Ukraine and Poland, and since then, UEFA has been pushing very hard," he said. "But this will be a fantastic tournament."

Ukraine, Poland Honor Katyn Victims

KIEV, Ukraine -- The president of Poland and Ukraine's prime minister joined victims' relatives to honor thousands of Polish officers killed by the Soviet secret police 70 years ago in the Katyn massacre.
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov on Saturday laid wreaths at a former prison building in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, close to the Russian border, where many of the officers were murdered.

Other officers were shot in the Katyn forest of western Russia, and the killings have become known as the Katyn massacre. An estimated 22,000 Polish officers, taken prisoner by the Soviets after the September 1939 invasion of Poland, were shot in the killings that began in April 1940.

"I would like very much for us to have the possibility here in Kharkiv, as well as in other places, to retain both personal and collective memory of those killed by this totalitarian regime," Komorowski said.

Some 400 relatives of the Polish victims joined the commemoration, which included visiting a cemetery where about 3,800 of the victims are buried.

The Nazis discovered the mass graves of the officers in the Katyn forest during their march on Moscow in the fall of 1941. Soviet propaganda blamed the deaths on Adolf Hitler and punished anyone speaking the truth with harsh prison terms.

In 1990, Moscow acknowledged that dictator Josef Stalin's feared NKVD secret police -- the precursor to the KGB -- were responsible.

Katyn inadvertently drew international attention this April when then-Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria and all 94 other top Polish civilian and military officials heading for a Katyn commemoration died in a plane crash near Smolensk airport.

Polish President Visits Ukraine To Honor Soviet Victims

KIEV, Ukraine -- Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski will visit the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday to commemorate the 1940 massacre of about 4,000 Polish officers by the Soviet secret police NKVD.
Komorowski, who was elected president following the death of former president Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash in western Russia in April, will attend a memorial mass and wreath-laying ceremony along with Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

According to declassified WWII documents, Soviet leadership approved a proposal by NKVD chief Lavrenty Beria, dated March 5, 1940, to execute all members of the Polish Officer Corps.

The executions took place in various parts of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The largest massacre occurred in the Katyn forest near the Russian city of Smolensk.

In Ukraine, the Soviet secret police took the Polish officers from the Starobelsk camp near Kharkiv, shot them in the inner NKVD Kharkiv prison and buried their bodies outside of the city.

The mass murder of thousands of Polish officers, police and civilians taken prisoner during the 1939 partitioning of Poland by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, remains one of the most painful issues in Russian-Polish relations.

Yanukovych flies to Poland

Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych left for Krakow to attend the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, a presidential spokesman said.

Many world leaders have had to miss the funeral later in the day of Kaczynski, who was killed in a plane crash last week, because of a volcanic ash cloud over Europe which has halted almost all flights in northern and central Europe.

"The presidential plane has left for Krakow," a spokeswoman for Yanukovych told Reuters.

Earlier, Ukraine International Airlines said it would resume international flights from Kyiv at 0900 GMT.

Other Ukrainian airlines followed suit, resuming internal flights from other Ukrainian cities.

Polish president had close relatives in Ukraine, visited frequently

LVIV, Ukraine – The late Polish President Lech Kaczynski, killed with 95 other national leaders in an April 10 plane crash in Russia, had family ties to Ukraine.

Unknown to most Ukrainians and Poles, the late president has two cousins living in Ukraine – Volodymyr Mokhnachov from Poltava and Yury Kuzmyn from Odessa.

Mokhnachov’s father, Yaroslav, and Kyzmyn’s mother, Valentyna, were siblings to the Polish president’s mother, Jadwiga. The family was torn apart during World War II, Mokhnachov told the Kyiv Post on April 13.

Both men will attend Kaczynski’s state funeral, which will be held in Krakow, Poland, on April 18.

Kaczynski’s families preferred to stay quiet about their relationship with the Polish president and his twin brother, Jaroslaw, Mokhnachov said. “These were close relations,” he said. “It’s some we preferred not to announce.”

As children, the Kaczynski brothers saw their Ukrainian cousins often. As their political fortunes grew in Poland over the years, the visits became less frequent. In recent times, the cousins usually saw each other twice a year and the Polish president made several private visits to Ukraine.

Mokhnachov said he learned of Kaczynski’s death about 40 minutes after the presidential plane crashed near Smolensk.

The Polish president was killed early on April 10 en route to a service commemorating the 70-year anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which more than 20,000 Polish officers were killed by the Soviet secret policy in the Katyn forest in western Russia.

All 96 people in the presidential entourage, including some of Poland’s top military, political and religious leaders, perished in the crash. The pilot of the TU-154 aircraft had been trying to land in dense fog and investigators have suggested that human error may have been to blame.

Polish First Lady Maria Kaczynska, traveling with her husband, was also killed.

“I tried to call Lech and then got the signal that the call couldn’t get through. It was a shock. We had hoped he had survived,” Mokhnachov said.

Mokhnachov said the president’s mother still does not know of her son’s death; Jaroslaw made the decision not to tell her. “She is ill and finally getting better,” Mokhnachov said.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski had also been slated to board the flight that took his brother’s life, according to Mokhnachov. But, at the last minute, he decided to stay with the twin brothers’ mother in Warsaw.

Human error blamed for crash

Analysts have concluded that human error - rather than the state of Poland's presidential jet - was the cause of the devastating crash in Smolensk.

The Polish Board N1, Russian made Tu-154M was recently repaired and had plenty of flying time left, Alexiei Gusev, "Aviakor-Aviation" factory director, who was in charge of the Polish airplane maintenance.

The plane was manufactured in 1990 and within last 20 years it has been used by previous Polish presidents, including Wojciech Jaruzelski, Lech Walesa and Aleksander Kwasniewski. In December 2009, the liner went through a major overhaul.

"From the moment it entered service, the plane had had 5,004 flight hours and 1,823 landings, which, for an aircraft of this class, is not a lot," said Gusev.

Russian Air Force Chief of Staff Alexander Alyoshin said the pilots were recommended to divert to another airport due to heavy fog for the first time when the plane was at a distance of about 50 km from the airport Smolensk-North, but they did not follow the recommendations. "The second warning was made 1.5 km from the airport, and the plane kept descending. Then the flight director again gave several commands to divert to an alternative airfield, but the aircraft continued to descend," said Alyoshin at a briefing.

Some aviation experts speculated that President Kaczynski or his entourage might have ordered the pilot to land despite bad weather conditions and warnings from Russian air traffic control, calling it a "VIP-passenger syndrome".

A business aviation pilot with 40 years experience and aviation safety lecturer from Australia, who preferred not to be identified by name, said that there are several cases in history, when high ranking passengers try to influence flight captains.

"It's widely known that commissars in the communist era or modern-day influential VIP passengers try to command captains," he said.

The Polish web resource "Thenews.pl" quoted the former Polish president Lech Walesa, who said the pilot may have come under pressure. Walesa mentioned a case of two years ago when Lech Kaczynski tried to force a pilot of the presidential plane to land in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi during the war in South Ossetia.

And Kaczynski's apparent recklessness has a long historical pedigree, dating back to the 1930 R-101 airship disaster caused by the impetuousness of then UK aviation minister Lord Thomson. He insisted on a take off from Karachi despite warnings that the craft was not ready and the weather was not suitable for take off at that time.

Meanwhile the Interstate Aviation Committee (MAC) in its official statement said that the flight data recorders ("black boxes") of the crashed Tu-154M aircraft were delivered to a special laboratory, where the experts of the committee in the presence of Polish officials and officers of Investigation Committee of Prosecutor's Office started inspection of the containers with recorders. MAC Deputy Chairman Oleg Yermolov told The Moscow News that MAC will only comment on the state of the crashed airplane only after completion of the investigation.

Russia's Transport Minister Igor Levitin said the main reason for the crash was the decision to ignore the dangerously poor visibility. "The visibility at the time of the accident was 400 metres, although the standards require 1,000 metres as a minimum," said Levitin.

Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor's Office said they examined verbal recordings of radio contact between the pilot and the airport services and found out that the pilot did not follow the flight director's instructions to divert to another airport.

Maxim Pyatushkin, an expert from the "Aviation Review" magazine said that if the airport does not declare itself closed, the final decision to land is up to the captain."

Pyatushkin said that the technical condition of the Tu-154M airplane should be investigated as a cause of the crash only after all others.

"Twenty years for an aircraft is not a significant age if it's treated properly. The airplanes of country leaders are being repaired and checked very carefully and Polish pilots know this machine very well," said Pyatushkin.

Poland, Russia united through tragedy

As Warsaw and Moscow mourned victims of Saturday's plane crash that took the life of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and many senior government officials, the tragedy appeared to be a catalyst in thawing decades of tense relations between the two countries.

A visibly distraught Prime Minister Vladimir Putin turned to embrace his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, after both arrived at the scene of the crash on Saturday.

The image was broadcast repeatedly on Polish television, and appeared to strike a powerful chord.

"At the human level, Poles are impressed and touched by the Russians' reaction," Eugeniusz Smolar, a senior fellow at Warsaw's Centre for International Relations told The Moscow News. "We know that Putin is not a very emotional person. This made an impression. There are many issues, but the human touch will help overcome some of them, because there is goodwill on both sides."

Putin had visited Smolensk just days before the crash to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, when Soviet secret police killed some 20,000 Poles, including thousands of army officers. His comments then were "guarded and limited," Smolar noted, but the event marked that considerable headway had been made by both sides in overcoming the past.

"There is no difference between the Polish and Russian academics about what happened in Katyn," Smolar said, noting that their historic agreement was a major step.

Russian authorities reacted fast to the crash, with Putin taking personal charge of the investigation. Victims' families were given full hospitality by authorities in Moscow.

Poland's Foreign Ministry expressed gratitude on Monday for Russia's assistance.
With Poland's presidential elections scheduled for June, the efforts would cement the improving trajectory of relations, political analysts said.

"I just spoke to Poland's former president Alexander Kwasniewski, and he said that whoever is the next president of Poland, he will not forget that the Russians were very helpful in dealing with this tragedy," said Alexander Rahr, programme director for Russia and Eurasia at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin.

While Putin has had friendly relations with Tusk, a member of the pro-European Civic Platform party, his relations with Kaczynski, a conservative nationalist who planned to run for re-election under his Law and Justice party banner, were notoriously strained.

With the Civil Platform party in power, Poland has been increasingly more conciliatory towards Russia. It demonstrated reluctance to deploy a US missile shield, which Russia opposed, on its territory, and Poland's support for NATO entry for Ukraine and Georgia became more subdued.

By contrast, "Putin had no relationship with Kaczynski, as a politician. Kaczynski avoided relations with the Russian government," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.

But the last weeks saw "serious reconciliation, particularly on the Katyn issue," Lukyanov said. "There was an impression that both sides were trying to overcome this heavy historical burden."

Meanwhile, another presidential contender, Jerzy Smajdzinski of the Left Democratic Alliance party, was also killed on the crash, leaving the country's parliament speaker and acting president, Civic Platform politician Bronislaw Komorowski, as the clear favourite to win the election.

"Of course there is a chance that Jaroslav Kaczynski may run for the presidency, and he will have some moral support due to the tragic death of his brother," Rahr said, "But from today's standpoint, it looks like Komorowski has the best chances to win."

Under Komarowski, relations with Russia would become better, Rahr said.

Russia's Putin invites Tusk to Katyn massacre event

Russian PM Vladimir Putin has invited his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, to a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre.
It is the first Russian ceremony to mark the murdering by Soviet secret police of more than 20,000 Polish prisoners of war in April 1940.
The invitation is being hailed in Poland as a breakthrough that could lead to improved bilateral ties.
Mr Putin said he understood the significance of the massacre to Poles.
He told Mr Tusk in a telephone call that their joint appearance at the ceremony in April would be an important symbolic gesture, said a Polish government spokesman.
A former Polish foreign minister, Adam Rotfeld, who now heads a committee tackling difficult issues between the two countries, hailed Mr Putin's invitation as an important event in the normalisation of Polish-Russian relations.
The mass execution of Polish army and police officers in the forests of Katyn and other sites has long been one of the most difficult issues between the two countries.
For half a century the Soviet Union blamed the killings on the Nazis.
In 1990, Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev finally admitted Soviet responsibility.
More recently, Moscow's refusal to declassify the archives, and a Russian court ruling that the massacre did not warrant the term genocide, has angered many in Poland.

Poles angry, Russians baffled

Reports in a Polish magazine, Wprost, that Russian troops staged war games in September which simulated a nuclear attack on Poland and cast the nation as a potential aggressor have stoked another spat between Warsaw and Moscow.
But it was reported calls from Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski to deploy NATO forces in Central Europe which really upset the Kremlin.
With the long-running missile shield row only recently resolved, it was hoped that relations would calm down, but reports that Sikorski urged Washington to provide "strategic reassurance" for Poland bemused Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, Reuters reported.
"I would like to be sure that he actually said that, and if he did I would be deeply astonished," Lavrov told reporters. "I'm astounded because he and I discussed in tiny detail the problems that should be resolved in the context of European security."

East Europeans Nervous as U.S. Courts Russia

WARSAW, Poland — A group of prominent former Eastern European leaders wrote to U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday that their region is gripped by anxiety that he could forget their interests as he seeks to repair ties with Russia.
The 22 former leaders said they still feel bullied by Russia and claimed that Moscow continues to challenge their sovereignty.
They warned in a letter, carried on the web site of the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper and to be delivered in Washington later Thursday, that U.S. credibility would be damaged if Washington abandons plans for a missile defense shield in response to Russian pressure, calling this the “thorniest” of current issues.
The administration of former President George W. Bush reached agreements last year to station interceptor missiles at a base in Poland and a linked radar base in the Czech Republic. Russia vehemently opposes the plan, and Obama is skeptical of it and is undertaking a thorough review.
“Abandoning the program entirely or involving Russia too deeply in it without consulting Poland or the Czech Republic can undermine the credibility of the United States across the whole region,” according to the letter signed by former leaders from countries once in the Soviet-controlled communist bloc but now NATO and EU members.
The signatories include former Presidents Lech Walesa and Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland, Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic, Emil Constantinescu of Romania and Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia. They describe themselves as U.S. allies who remain deeply indebted to Washington for helping bring down the Iron Curtain.
“Had a ‘realist’ view prevailed in the early 1990s, we would not be in NATO today and the idea of a Europe whole, free, and at peace would be a distant dream,” the letter said.
The letter comes days after an Obama visit to Moscow, where he sought to reboot the tense relationship between the United States and Russia, including by putting a renewed focus on paring down nuclear stockpiles.
While missile defense came up in the talks, there was no progress and further discussions were put aside for later.
Russia has threatened to deploy missiles near Poland if the United States pushes ahead with the shield. Obama has attempted to reassure Moscow that the system is geared to tempering a ballistic missile threat from countries like Iran, a strong trading partner of Russia.
There is “nervousness in our capitals,” the authors wrote. “We want to ensure that too narrow an understanding of Western interests does not lead to the wrong concession to Russia.”
While they welcome Obama’s attempts to “reset” ties with Russia, they warned that Russia still acts as if it has final say in the region.
“Our hopes that relations with Russia would improve and that Moscow would finally fully accept our complete sovereignty and independence after joining NATO and the EU have not been fulfilled,” the letter says. “Instead, Russia is back as a revisionist power pursuing a 19th-century agenda with 21st-century tactics and methods.”
The authors cite economic warfare, including recent gas shortages in past years with Ukraine and others; politically motivated investments; bribery and media manipulation in order to advance its interests and to challenge the trans-Atlantic orientation of Central and Eastern Europe.
A security analyst, Bartosz Wisniewski, said the letter is more “alarmist and defensive in tone” than the reality would dictate, especially since Obama has tried to reassure the region that he would not sacrifice its interests in his rapprochement with Russia.
“But if you want to get something across in Washington you need to be vocal,” said Wisniewski, who works for a state-funded think tank, the Polish Institute of International Affairs.
He said it is notable what is absent from the 3,000-word letter. There is no mention of Ukraine or desires for further NATO enlargement and only the briefest mention of Georgia.
“It’s about consolidating what has already been gained in the last 20 years and taking care of the allies that you already have and not thinking about the others,” Wisniewski said. “It is a very realistic approach given the priorities of the Obama administration.”