The Polish army has reportedly saved $20,000 a month using Gazprom's satellite Shutterstock

Polish armed forces in Afghanistan should use satellite bandwidth offered by firms that serve other European Union or NATO countries, rather than bandwidth for satellites owned by Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom’s space equipment arm, Polish Minister of Defense Tomasz Siemoniak told daily Rzeczpospolita.

The newspaper revealed in September that Polish forces in Afghanistan have been using Gazprom Space System’s Yamal-202 satellite to transfer classified information for the past four years.

Mr Siemoniak reportedly learned that the Polish army was using Gazprom’s Yamal-202 satellite from Rzeczpospolita, when it broke the news. He immediately asked for an explanation from Poland’s Military Counterintelligence Service (Służba Kontrwywiadu Wojskowego – SKW), receiving a very “extensive” answer.

“I recommended to the chief of the general staff that in the new tender, which will take place in the coming weeks, [there should] be a condition which says firms offering satellites must be the companies that supply satellites to the European Union or NATO,” Mr Siemoniak told the newspaper.

The Polish armed forces have reportedly saved around $20,000 a month by using Gazprom’s equipment instead of satellites owned by other firms.

Poland’s Ministry of Defense says that use of the Gazprom satellite does not pose a threat to national security and that transmissions are encrypted.