The leaders of NATO members Poland and Lithuania warned on Thursday in opposition to “provocations” and “sabotage actions” from neighboring Belarus by relocated members of Russia’s Wagner mercenary pressure, a warning that comes simply days after two Belarusian helicopters breached Polish airspace and heightened jitters in the area.
“Our response to the provocation is to increase the size of the Polish Army on the eastern border of the country by redeploying troops from the west,” Poland’s protection minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, stated on Thursday at a televised meeting with troop commanders in Bialystok, a regional capital close to the Belarusian border. “In accordance with the applicable law, soldiers in a specific situation can use weapons. They are not defenseless.”
Belarus, a staunch Russian ally, shares sizable borders with each Poland and Lithuania, which help Ukraine.
There are at the least 4,000 members of the Wagner mercenary group in Belarus, Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, stated individually on Thursday, at a information convention with President Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania at Przesmyk Suwalski, a strategic strip of land in Poland near both the Belarusian and Lithuanian borders in addition to that of Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.
The Wagner group is “extremely dangerous,” Mr. Morawiecki stated, and it’s “being redeployed to NATO’s eastern flank to destabilize it.”
On Tuesday, native media reported that two helicopters marked with Belarusian flags have been seen in the realm of Bialowieza, simply throughout the border from Belarus. Although the Polish authorities at first stated it had not detected any intrusion, the Defense Ministry later confirmed that “there was a violation of Polish airspace by two Belarusian helicopters that were carrying out training near the border,” including that Belarus had knowledgeable Poland concerning the workout routines.
Following the incident, Polish authorities alerted NATO and introduced that they have been deploying additional troops and helicopters to the border.
At the information convention with Mr. Morawiecki, the Lithuanian president warned that the presence of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus was “an additional security risk factor for Lithuania, Poland and NATO allies.” Mr. Nauseda added: “We remain vigilant and prepared for any possible scenario.”
Poland and Lithuania fortified their borders with Belarus beginning in late 2021 as Polish and European authorities accused the longtime autocratic ruler of Belarus, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, of luring migrants from the Middle East and Africa with flights and visas and then pushing them into Poland in order to destabilize the nation and achieve diplomatic leverage. Poland built an 18-foot razor-wire-topped wall along 115 miles of the border.
