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The leaders of NATO members Poland and Lithuania warned on Thursday in opposition to “provocations” and “sabotage actions” from neighboring Belarus by relocated members of Russia’s Wagner mercenary power, a warning that comes simply days after two Belarusian helicopters breached Polish airspace and heightened jitters within the area.
“Our response to the provocation is to extend the dimensions of the Polish Military on the jap border of the nation by redeploying troops from the west,” Poland’s protection minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, mentioned on Thursday at a televised assembly with troop commanders in Bialystok, a regional capital close to the Belarusian border. “In accordance with the relevant legislation, troopers in a particular scenario can use weapons. They aren’t defenseless.”
Belarus, a staunch Russian ally, shares sizable borders with each Poland and Lithuania, which help Ukraine.
There are a minimum of 4,000 members of the Wagner mercenary group in Belarus, Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, mentioned individually on Thursday, at a information convention with President Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania at Przesmyk Suwalski, a strategic strip of land in Poland close to each the Belarusian and Lithuanian borders in addition to that of Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.
The Wagner group is “extraordinarily harmful,” Mr. Morawiecki mentioned, and it’s “being redeployed to NATO’s jap flank to destabilize it.”
On Tuesday, native media reported that two helicopters marked with Belarusian flags had been seen within the space of Bialowieza, simply throughout the border from Belarus. Though the Polish authorities at first mentioned it had not detected any intrusion, the Protection Ministry later confirmed that “there was a violation of Polish airspace by two Belarusian helicopters that had been finishing up coaching close to the border,” including that Belarus had knowledgeable Poland concerning the workouts.
Following the incident, Polish authorities alerted NATO and introduced that they had been deploying additional troops and helicopters to the border.
On the information convention with Mr. Morawiecki, the Lithuanian president warned that the presence of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus was “a further safety danger issue for Lithuania, Poland and NATO allies.” Mr. Nauseda added: “We stay vigilant and ready for any potential state of affairs.”
Poland and Lithuania fortified their borders with Belarus beginning in late 2021 as Polish and European authorities accused the longtime autocratic ruler of Belarus, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, of luring migrants from the Center East and Africa with flights and visas after which pushing them into Poland with a view to destabilize the nation and acquire diplomatic leverage. Poland constructed an 18-foot razor-wire-topped wall alongside 115 miles of the border.
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