Poland sends thousands of soldiers to the border with Belarus.
Now the US is urging its residents to leave the country immediately.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists six reasons for the warning.
The USA’s tightened travel advisory on Belarus was published on Monday. It is at the fourth and highest level on the risk scale, reports The Hill.
The US State Department warns its citizens against traveling to Belarus and urges those already there to leave the country immediately.
The reasons given are Belarus’ continued support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, the increased presence of Russian forces in the country, arbitrary local legislation, the risk of civil unrest, the risk of being arrested and the closure of the US embassy.
After the aborted uprising last summer, the Russian Wagner group was transferred to Belarus. It happened after an agreement between Putin, Lukashenko and Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.
During the summer, the Wagner soldiers practiced with Belarusian forces in the forests around Brest, just a few kilometers from the Polish border. A few weeks ago, two Belarusian military helicopters also flew into Polish airspace at low altitude.
Poland sends soldiers
The heightened tensions have prompted NATO country Poland to increase its military presence at the border. Barely two weeks ago, Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said that 10,000 soldiers will be sent there
In addition to the presence of the Wagner group, the troop movement is justified by the fact that Belarus continues to receive refugees from the Middle East and North Africa and then help them enter Poland illegally.
– If we had real border guards on the other side, and not smuggling officers, these crossings would not exist at all, said Polish Interior Minister Maciej Wasik.
Lukashenko: “In a bad mood”
Just under a month ago, the dictator of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, stated that the Wagner soldiers “are in a bad mood” and that they want to march towards Poland.
– They are asking permission to go west on a trip to Warsaw, to Rzeszow. But of course I keep them in central Belarus as we agreed, he said during a meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg.
The Belarusian resistance movement gives a completely different picture and claims that Lukashenko has no insight into what Wagner is doing in the country.
– I have inside contacts in the Russian security forces. They believe that Belarus has been handed over to Prigozhin. Now he does what he wants without asking Lukashenko, opposition defense adviser Valeriy Sakhashchyk said earlier this summer in an interview with the exiled Russian newspaper Current Time.
“Can take control of nuclear weapons”
In May, both Putin and Lukashenko stated that Russian nuclear weapons would be moved to Belarus. In mid-June, Putin said they were already in the country. Both the United States and the United Kingdom rated the information as credible.
– Putin doesn’t always lie, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace recently told CNN.
Valery Sakhashchyk did not rule out the possibility that the Wagner group could gain control of the Russian atomic bombs.
– I have a large network of contacts in the Belarusian army. The people I talk to have about the same opinions as me. They feel resentment and indignation about what is happening, he said in the interview.
– These people quite seriously believe that control of the tactical nuclear weapons is also transferred to Wagner. Their soldiers have been deployed near the 465th Missile Brigade which has Iskander robots. All this is very unpleasant. The Belarusian officers feel like hostages in a dirty political game.
Prigozhin: “I am in Africa”
Wagner conductor Yevgeny Prigozhin was captured over the summer on grainy footage at the base in Belarus. On Monday, he suddenly broke his silence after the aborted rebellion against Putin. He posed with a gun and stated that he is in Africa.
– We make Russia even more powerful on all continents and Africa even freer. We bring joy and justice to the African peoples, he said according to Sky News.