The presence of the Wagner group in Belarus may constitute “a threat” to neighboring countries, members of the eastern flank of neighboring NATO, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Wednesday, and the government of his country announced “reinforcements” to the Polish-Belarusian border.
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Belarus announced the day before the arrival on its territory of Yevgeny Prigojine, leader of the Wagner mercenary group, as part of an agreement that ended his 24-hour rebellion on Saturday in Russia.
“It is difficult for us to exclude that the presence of the Wagner group in Belarus could constitute a potential threat for Poland which shares a border with Belarus, a threat for Lithuania (…), as well as, potentially, for Latvia , which is also a neighbor of Belarus,” Duda told reporters in Kiev.
Speaking at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian and Lithuanian counterparts, Mr Duda left unanswered his own question about “the purpose of this relocation”.
“What are the forces of the Wagner group, so in other words the Russian army, really for, precisely in Belarus? Are they intended to occupy Belarus or to create an additional threat from the north towards Ukraine, by threatening a potential attack on that country from Belarus? Or is it a form of potential threat precisely towards our NATO countries, towards Poland? “, he launched.
According to the Ukrainian head of state, Volodymyr Zelensky, “NATO must unanimously tell Polish and Lithuanian societies that if a Wagner man sets foot on Lithuanian or Polish territory, then all Wagner fighters will be destroyed. , wherever they are”.
The Alliance summit which opens on July 11 in Vilnius “is an excellent platform to get such a message across”, he said.
A few hours later, in Warsaw, the Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski announced to journalists that in view of the transfer of the Wagner group to Belarus, whose workforce is estimated by Warsaw at around 8,000 men, measures had been taken to strengthen the eastern border of the country.
Mr. Kaczynski declined to specify the scope and nature of this process.