A group of 100 soldiers from the Russian Wagner group have moved closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno near the Polish border, the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has said.
Poland, a former Warsaw Pact member which has been a full member of the US-led Nato military alliance since 1999, has been concerned about the possible spillover of war on to its territory ever since Russian invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Reuters reports.
The move of several thousand Wagner mercenaries to Belarus was part of a deal that ended the group’s mutiny attempt in June, when they took control of a Russian military headquarters, marched on Moscow and threatened to tip Russia into civil war, president Vladimir Putin has said.
Earlier this month, Poland began moving more than 1,000 troops to the east of the country amid rising concerns that the presence of Wagner fighters in Belarus could lead to increased tension on its border.
The situation is getting increasingly dangerous … Most likely [the Wagner personnel] will be disguised as the Belarusian border guard and help illegal migrants get to the Polish territory [and] destabilise Poland.
They will most likely try to enter Poland pretending to be illegal migrants and this poses additional threats.
In further comments reported by the BBC, he added:
This is certainly a step towards a further hybrid attack on Polish territory.
However he did not give the source of his information on the Wagner movements, and Anton Motolko, founder of the Belarusian opposition Hajun project, which monitors military activity in the country, told Reuters his group had not seen any evidence of the Wagner group moving closer to Grodno.