‘Situation getting dangerous’, Polish PM warns as hundreds more Wagner fighters move closer to border
- ‘Most likely they will be disguised as the Belarusian border guard and help illegal migrants get to the Polish territory’, he said
- Thousands of Russia-linked Wagner Group mercenaries travelled to neighbouring Belarus, now hundreds have moved close to the Polish border
A group of a hundred soldiers from the Russian Wagner Group have moved closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno near the Polish border, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Saturday.
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.
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 they [the Wagner personnel] will be disguised as the Belarusian border guard and help illegal migrants get to the Polish territory [and] destabilise Poland,” Morawiecki said at a press conference in Gliwice, Western Poland.
“They will most likely try to enter Poland pretending to be illegal migrants and this poses additional threats,” Morawiecki said.
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.