Poland, a NATO member, and the leader of the military alliance both stated on Wednesday that a missile strike that killed two people on Polish farmland seemed to be an accident and was likely launched by air defences in neighbouring Ukraine. At the time, Russia had been shelling Ukraine in an attack that severely damaged its electricity infrastructure.

According to Polish President Andrzej Duda, “Ukraine’s defence was sending its missiles in numerous directions, and it is extremely plausible that one of these missiles sadly fell on Polish soil. Nothing, simply nothing, suggests that Poland was intentionally attacked.”

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Who is Andrzej Duda?

Andrzej Sebastian Duda, born May 16, 1972, is a Polish lawyer and politician who has been the country’s president since August 6, 2015. He is 51 years old.

Duda was born in Kraków to academics at the AGH University of Science and Technology, Janina Milewska and Jan Tadeusz Duda. His grandfather participated in the Polish-Soviet War and afterwards served in the Home Army during World War II.

Duda attended Jan III Sobieski High School in Kraków from 1987 to 1991, where he excelled in the humanities. Later, he attended Jagiellonian University to study law.

He was hired as a research assistant in the Department of Administrative Law at the Jagiellonian University’s Faculty of Law and Administration in October 2001 after receiving his Master of Laws. At the Jagiellonian University, Duda also earned a Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) in January 2005.

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He has spent much of his time away from the university on unpaid leave due to his political career. Except for a 13-month break starting in September 2010, when he returned to the institution, since September 2006. Duda also held a position as a lecturer at Pozna’s Mieszko I College of Education and Administration.

Early in the new millennium, Duda started his political career with the now-defunct Freedom Union Party.

Andrzej Duda served in the European Parliament from 2014 to 2015 in addition to serving in the Polish Lower House (Sejm) from 2011 to 2014 before being elected president.

In the May 2015 presidential election, Duda was the Law and Justice party’s (PiS) nominee for president. Duda received 5,179,092 votes in the first round of voting, or 34.76% of all legitimate votes. Duda won the second round of voting with 51.55% of the vote, defeating Bronisaw Komorowski, the incumbent president, who garnered 48.45% of the vote. Andrzej Duda, the president-elect, resigned from his party membership on May 26, 2015.

Duda served in the European Parliament from 2014 to 2015 in addition to serving in the Polish Lower House (Sejm) from 2011 to 2014 before being elected president.

In the May 2015 presidential election, Duda was the Law and Justice party’s (PiS) nominee for president. Duda received 5,179,092 votes in the first round of voting, or 34.76% of all legitimate votes. Duda won the second round of voting with 51.55% of the vote, defeating Bronisaw Komorowski, the incumbent president, who garnered 48.45% of the vote.

Duda, the president-elect, resigned from his party membership on May 26, 2015.

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Duda is married to Agata Kornhauser-Duda, a German teacher at Kraków’s Jan III Sobieski High School. They have been married since December 21, 1994. Kinga, their only child, was born in 1995.

Julian Kornhauser, a well-known writer, translator, and literary critic, is Duda’s father-in-law.