The presence of the Wagner Group in Belarus, added to the increase in immigrants, has been considered by Poland as a potential threat. The Minister of the Interior, Mariusz Kaminski, informed on Sunday morning on his Twitter account that he will send 500 police officers from the Belarusian border to the border with Belarus. riot control and anti-terrorism units and 2,000 soldiers, who will join the 5,000 border guards. “Due to the tense situation on the border with Belarus, I have decided to reinforce our forces,” Kaminski reports in a tweet.
Poland has accused Belarus of have created artificially a migratory crisis at the border since 2021, by bringing in people from the Middle East and Africa and trying to push them across the border.
The Polish Border Guard reported yesterday that 187 people attempted to cross into Poland illegally from Belarus on Saturday, noting that the numbers have grown steadily in recent months, although they are well below the levels seen in 2021.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Poland, Jarosław Kaczyński has announced as a result of recent Intelligence indicating that up to 8,000 Personnel of the Wagner PMC Group will soon be Transferred to the Territory of Belarus, the Polish Military will soon Deploy a number of Combat… pic.twitter.com/Xf74BhIZ0d
—OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 28, 2023
According to a spokeswoman for the Polish Border Guard, Anna Michalska, Polish patrols at the border have faced more aggressive behavior in the last two months as the number of immigrants has increased. “The groups are more aggressive. There have been many attacks against Polish patrols. Seventeen vehicles were damaged this year, 13 of which were in June,” says Michalska.
Stanislaw Zaryn, the minister in charge of coordinating the special services, told Reuters that the increase in security (in addition to the migration problem) is also due to the transfer of mercenaries from the Wagner group to Belarus.
The decision to transfer the group of mercenaries to Belarus has spread fears among eastern NATO members that their presence will cause further instability in the region.
“It is still a hypothesis and a case in point whether the Wagner Group will dedicate itself to destabilizing Poland,” Zaryn told Reuters. “We assume that the Wagners are not going to Belarus to recover, but to carry out a mission. this mission could be directed at Poland, but also against Lithuania or Ukraine“, he added.
