Polish leader donates to Ukraine army to end defamation case

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Polish ruling party leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, has made a donation to the Ukrainian army to settle a defamation case with a political rival. Kaczyński was ordered by a court in December to pay Radek Sikorski more than 700,000 zlotys ($162,000) to cover the costs of publishing an apology for calling him a “diplomatic traitor.” Kaczyński made the comment in 2016 in connection to the 2010 plane crash near Smolensk, Russia, that killed Kaczynski’s brother, then-President Lech Kaczyński, and 95 others. Sikorski was foreign minister at the time of the disaster. Kaczynski said Tuesday that he had paid a smaller sum to the Ukrainian army to settle the dispute.