President Lech Kaczyński has said that although not been officially invited to the Katyn 70th anniversary in April by Vladimir Putin, he intends to go to the ceremonies.

Last week, Russia’s Prime Minister Putin issued an invitation to his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk to the ceremony which commemorates the death of over 20,000 Polish officers in 1940 at the hands of the Soviet NKVD secret police.

Head of the National Security Bureau Aleksander Szczygło told Polskie Radio this weekend that the President wants to honour the memory of murdered Poles:

“Polish army, police border guard officers. This was always a Polish ceremony. It was the Polish side which for many years prepared the commemorations [for the anniversary] and that’s the way it should be,” he said.

Russian government's chief spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the invitation to PM Tusk was given during a telephone conversation between the two heads of government and initiated by the Russian side.

The Katyn massacre of 1940 has long been a source of tension between the two countries, with Poland demanding Moscow to recognise the events as genocide.

That Putin has invited, and PM Tusk, accepted the invitation to the Katyn ceremony is seen as the beginning of a possible thaw in the relations between the two countries, which increased after it was announced that a battery of Patriot missiles and 100 US troops will be stationed in Poland close to the border with Kaliningrad, Russia. (ek/pg)