Jo Harper
29 July 2023•Update: 30 July 2023
WARSAW
A group of about 100 soldiers from the Wagner Group of Russian mercenaries has moved towards the Belarusian city of Grodno, near the Polish border, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Saturday.
“This is certainly a step towards a further hybrid attack on Polish territory,” Morawiecki said in Gliwice, southwestern Poland. “Now the situation is even more dangerous.”
The Wagner troops – who have been in Poland since a short-lived revolt last month against Russia – could disguise themselves as Belarusian border guards and help illegal immigrants get into Poland or else impersonate immigrants illegally crossing the border, the premier added.
The Polish government and European Commission have both accused Minsk of orchestrating the passage of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa through the Belarusian border with Poland since 2021 as a way of destabilizing the Polish state and deepening tensions within Poland and between Warsaw and Brussels.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said he would punish Poland after Warsaw accused him of rigging his widely disputed 2020 reelection as well as clamping down on the 300,000-strong Polish community in Belarus, most of whom live in the border Grodno area.
Putin reportedly moved short-range nuclear weapons near the border area this month.
Residents of the Polish town of Terespol, 250 kilometers (150 miles) south along the Polish-Belarusian border, reportedly hear regular shooting and see military helicopters overhead after Wagner mercenaries last week arrived in Brest, the Belarusian town just over the border.
Reports of the numbers of Wagner troops in Belarus vary from 2,000 to 5,000.
Lukashenko promised to keep them in central Belarus, but reports indicate that units of the Belarusian Special Operations Forces are training with the Wagner Group at the Brest military range, near the village of Pryluki, only 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) from the Bug River, which marks part of the border.
Poland is moving over 1,000 troops to the towns of Biala Podlaska and Kolno in the east, near Belarus, and 500 police to beef up security at the border.
