Polish PM: Wagner mercenaries in Belarus 'may try infiltrating Poland'
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Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on July 29 that the Wagner Group mercenaries could infiltrate Poland from Belarus, where they are currently stationed.
Morawiecki said that more than 100 mercenaries were deployed to the Grodno area in Belarus near the Suwalki Gap, an area southwest of the Lithuania-Poland border, between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
“This is a step towards a further hybrid attack on Polish territory,” Morawiecki said, as quoted by the Polish RMF24.
Morawiecki also said that Wagner mercenaries could possibly disguise themselves as Belarusian border guards ushering refugees to the border in order to infiltrate Poland.
In 2021, Belarus began allowing thousands of asylum seekers to come to the country with a promise of safe entry into Europe. The situation escalated in November of that year when Belarusian troops escorted thousands of asylum seekers to the Polish border, cutting through the wire fence to allow refugees to cross. Most of them were violently pushed back by Polish border guards.
Wagner columns have been arriving to Belarus since Wagner boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin's abortive mutiny ended with an undisclosed agreement with the Kremlin brokered by Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
Prigozhin reportedly told his mercenaries that the Wagner mercenaries would train Belarusian soldiers.
Meanwhile, the State Border Guard Service spokesperson Andrii Demcnenko reported on national television on July 29 that 0ver 5,000 Wagner mercenaries have already arrived in Belarus but do not yet pose any threat to Ukraine.
In response to the presence of Wagner troops in Poland, Polish deputy prime minister Jarosław Kaczynski said on July 27 that the size of the Polish military would be nearly doubled.
Read also: Belarus Weekly: Lithuanian president calls Belarus a ‘Russian province,’ urges increasing defense
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