Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko says Poland should thank him for keeping the Wagner soldiers within the country’s borders. “They shouldn’t blame me, they should say thank you,” the president said in a statement on Tuesday. reports The Jerusalem Post.
Later in the evening, the Polish government announced that helicopters from Belarus had violated Polish airspace.
Tensions in the area on the border between the two countries have increased since the Wager Group entered Belarus following the armed uprising against the Russian military leadership. In recent weeks, the Wagner soldiers have also been training together with Lukashenko’s army – something that has caused Poland to move around 1,000 soldiers to the border area.
According to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, around 100 Wagner soldiers moved towards the Belarusian city of Grodno, near the Polish border, over the weekend.
– Now the situation becomes even more dangerous, said Morawiecki during a press conference on Saturday, reports CNN.
Lukashenko: Would have “seeped through” without us
In a statement on Tuesday, President Lukashenko said Poles “should pray that we hold on to the Wagner soldiers and provide for them. Without us they would have otherwise seeped through and crushed Rzeszow and Warsaw in no small way. So they shouldn’t blame me, they should say thank you,” Belarusian state news site Belta reports, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Both Poland and Lithuania have warned that Wagner soldiers may try to cross the border from Belarus by posing as migrants.
Belarusian helicopters violated Polish airspace
Later on Tuesday evening, the Polish government stated that helicopters from Belarus had violated Polish airspace. The helicopters are said to have been practicing near the Polish border when they entered the airspace. The breach is also said to have occurred at “very low altitude”, and was therefore not detected by the Polish radar systems.
“After the commanders and service chiefs presented conclusions from the analysis of the situation, it was established that today, August 1, 2023, there was a violation of Polish airspace by two Belarusian helicopters training near the border,” writes the Polish government in a statement.
Reinforces the presence even further
After the incident, Poland has decided to further strengthen the military presence at the border, reports Reuters.
Belarus, for its part, denies the violation. In a post on the messaging app Telegram, it is written that the accusations are “far-fetched and are made so that the Polish military and political leadership can justify the military buildup on the border with Belarus,” TT reports.
Location at the border
The situation at the border between Poland and Belarus has long been tense since large flows of refugees, with migrants from Africa and the Middle East, tried to enter Poland. The country accuses Belarus of coordinating the migrant flow, calling it a “hybrid attack” in an attempt to destabilize Poland and the EU.
Lithuania also warns that Wagner soldiers will exploit migrants to provoke unrest. Lithuania’s Deputy Interior Minister Arnoldas Abramavicious said on Friday that the country is considering closing the border with Belarus due to the presence of Wagner soldiers in the region.
(TT)