Poland accused Wagner of destabilize the eastern wing of NATO and say that more than a thousand fighter were sent near the Polish borders
The Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday that fighters from Russia’s private military group Wagner were being moved near NATO’s eastern flank to destabilize the military alliance.
An unspecified number of Wagner fighters began training with the Belarusian army, prompting Poland to begin moving more than 1,000 troops near the border.
Poland accused Belarus on Tuesday of violating its airspace with military helicopters.
“We’ve to realize that provocative steps will increase,” Morawiecki said after meeting Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda in eastern Poland.
“Wagner Group is very dangerous and they are being moved to the East Wing to destabilize it,” he added.
The meeting took place in Suwalki Gap, a sparsely populated but strategically important region of Poland located between Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
The Lithuanian President said that the number of Wagner fighters in Belarus may be more than 4,000.
“We shouldn’t only talk about measures at the country level but also what to do if this situation becomes more complicated, including closing the border with Belarus,” he added.
“This should be done in a coordinated way between Poland, Lithuania and Latvia,” he said.
Belarus allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to use its territory as a launching pad for an invasion of Ukraine, but it didn’t take part in the war.
