Currently, there are about 4,000 mercenaries of the Russian Wagner group in Belarus, some of them are located near the territory of Lithuania and Poland, Lithuanian President Gitans Nauseda and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Moraveckis said on Thursday.
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“The data we have shows that there are about 4,000 mercenaries,” Moraveckis told reporters after meeting with Nausedas in Suvalkos, admitting that there could have been slightly more mercenaries.
“We compared the data we have on both and we can conclude that they are very similar. The number of mercenaries on the territory of Belarus exceeds or approaches 4,000 people, and some of them came close to our border and took up positions in the Grodno region,” Nauseda added, noting that “the situation is convenient for provocations both in the Polish-Belarusian and Lithuanian-Belarusian border.
Moraveckis also expressed confidence that Russia, using the Wagnerites, is testing the reaction of Poland and its allies.
“Wagner is a particular threat. The group’s units are deployed close to NATO’s eastern flank in order to destabilize it. This is a real threat, confirmed by our allies,” the Polish prime minister said.
According to him, Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to “sow chaos” and thereby destabilize the situation in Poland and Lithuania.
As a possible threat, Morawiecki listed the fact that the Wagnerians can be used to ferry illegal migrants from Belarus to Poland, mercenaries can pretend to be illegal migrants to penetrate the territory of Poland or other countries on the eastern flank of NATO.
Over the weekend, Morawieckis announced that more than 100 Wagner mercenaries stationed in Belarus had been redeployed to the Suwalki Gap near the Polish-Lithuanian border. Moraveckis warned that the situation is becoming more dangerous and the risks of a new hybrid attack on Poland are increasing. On the other hand, on Tuesday, the Polish Ministry of Defense reported that two Belarusian military helicopters violated its airspace in the east of the country.
On Monday, Nauseda said that the presence of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus near the border with Lithuania poses a great danger and increases the risk of provocations.
Lithuanian and Polish officials expressed their readiness to close the border with Belarus in case of serious incidents.
The so-called Suwalki corridor is a section of the Lithuanian-Polish border about 100 km wide, bordering the Koenigsberg (Karan) region in the west and Belarus in the east. In the event of a war, its capture would close the land route to the Baltics for NATO allies, so its protection is one of the most important tasks.