Wagner fighters may pose as migrants to enter EU, Polish PM claims

A gaggle of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus has moved nearer to the Polish border and will stage a “hybrid assault” contained in the EU nation by posing as unlawful migrants, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned.

Talking at a press convention in southern Poland on Saturday, Morawiecki mentioned that greater than 100 mercenaries had moved near the town of Grodno, close to the Suwałki Hole — a slim strategic stretch of Polish and Lithuanian territory that separates Belarus from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

“They are going to most likely be disguised as Belarusian border guards and can assist unlawful immigrants to enter Polish territory, destabilize Poland,” Morawiecki mentioned, based on Polish public broadcaster TVP.

The Wagner members would additionally probably “attempt to infiltrate Poland pretending to be unlawful immigrants,” he added, saying the state of affairs had turn out to be “extra harmful.”

In 2021, Warsaw and Brussels accused the Belarusian authorities and its Russian backers of searching for to sow instability on the fringe of the EU by transporting migrants to the Polish border.

Morawiecki mentioned the newest developments had been “virtually definitely a step in the direction of an additional hybrid assault on Polish territory.”

An unknown variety of Wagner troops moved to Belarus from Russia underneath a deal to finish the group’s 24-hour insurrection towards Moscow.

Ukraine’s border guard service mentioned earlier this month that it was assessing how most of the mercenaries had crossed into Belarus. Earlier than the short-lived coup, Wagner troops had fashioned the primary drive combating for the devastated Ukrainian metropolis of Bakhmut.

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s official social media channels reported that he had visited front-line troops within the Bakhmut space and met with army commanders.

Zelenskyy mentioned he couldn’t share particulars on present operations. However an intelligence replace by the U.Ok.’s Ministry of Protection on Saturday confirmed an “uptick of combating” in two sectors within the south of Ukraine up to now two days, with the seize of the village of Staromaiorske within the Donetsk area.

Combating was additionally centered on the village of Robotyne, south of Orikhiv, within the Zaporizhzhia area, the U.Ok. ministry mentioned.