The rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union deeply regrets the deaths of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and the authorities and people who were with him, as a result of a plane crash.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Spanish Presidency expressed its condolences to the Government and nation of Poland, and to the families of all the victims.

The President of the Spanish Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, also sent his condolences to the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, through a telegram expressing his "solidarity at this time of irreparable loss."

“On behalf of the Spanish people and myself, I want to convey my deepest sorrow to the families of the victims" for the tragic accident, stated the telegram.

Kacynski, 60, the Polish President since 2005, died along with over 100 occupants of the Tupolev TU-154 when it crashed attempting to land at a Russian airport.

The President, who was travelling with his wife Maria and a high-ranking delegation, was on his way to a memorial service for Polish soldiers killed on Stalin's orders in the Katyn forest in 1940.

The death of President Lech Kaczynski marks the disappearance of one of the most important figures in contemporary Polish history. He began his political career at a young age within the Solidarity political movement, and made the fight against corruption and the memory of Poland's heroic struggle in the Second World War the central elements of his political activity in his posts as Minister of Justice, Mayor of Warsaw and as President of the Republic of Poland since 2005.