Russia’s Wagner mercenary company is carrying out drills along the Polish-Belarusian border to stretch the presence of Polish troops, Ukrainian state civil defense organization the National Resistance Center or NCR reported on Aug. 10.
Read also: Minsk and Moscow are provoking Poland
About Russian 250 mercenaries are deployed there, indicating that the Russians were conducting a psychological operation to escalate tensions rather than mounting a serious attack, the center said.
Earlier, the NRC noted that the creation of a camp to accommodate about 1,000 Wagner mercenaries had begun at Zyabrovka airfield in Belarus.
Russia supposedly plans to use Wagner PMC to simulate subversive activities on Belarus’ borders with Chernihiv Oblast and EU countries.
After a failed mutiny attempt in Russia, some of the Wagner mercenaries ended up in Belarus through an agreement with Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
On July 23, during a meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko said that the Wagner mercenaries were "stressing him out" because they allegedly wanted to attack Poland.
But later he clarified that he was joking.
Read also: Nervous Poland will send more troops to the border with Belarus
On July 29, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that more than 100 mercenaries from Wagner PMC had moved towards the Suwalki Corridor, a 100-kilometer stretch between Poland and Lithuania that connects the Baltic states with Poland and the rest of NATO, and separates the Russian enclave in Kaliningrad Oblast and Belarus.
He called such actions "a dangerous situation" and "a step towards a further hybrid attack on Poland."
Morawiecki suggested that Wagner mercenaries would disguise themselves as Belarusian border guards and help illegal migrants enter Poland. In addition, Morawiecki suggested that militants could begin to enter Polish territory under the guise of illegal migrants, which would create "additional risks."
Read also: Polish PM concerned that Wagner mercenaries in Belarus could infiltrate Poland
On Aug. 3, Morawiecki urgently met with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda on the Isthmus of Suwalki after reports of Wagner PMC mercenaries approaching from Belarus.
On Aug. 7, Belarus began military drills near the border with Poland and Lithuania. The countries are preparing to strengthen their borders with Belarus. The two EU states also decided to close some border crossing points.
On Aug. 10, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced that his country would send 10,000 troops to the border with Belarus.
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