Poland said two Belarusian helicopters violated its airspace on Tuesday and that it would bolster its military strength on its eastern border as a result. “There was a violation of Polish airspace by two Belarusian helicopters training near the border,” the Polish Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
Earlier Tuesday, the Polish army had claimed that the helicopters had not violated the airspace of this NATO member country, before retracting afterwards. “The breach took place in the Bialowieza area at very low altitude, complicating radar detection,” the ministry explained, adding that “NATO has been informed of the incident.”
He also announced an increase in military personnel on the border with Belarus, referring to an intensification of “hybrid actions” of Russia and Belarus towards Poland. The Belarusian Ministry of Defense replied that the accusations “were made by the Polish military and political leaders to justify once again the increase in forces and means near the Belarusian border”.
Poland and its neighbors on NATO’s eastern flank have expressed concerns about the potential threat posed by Belarus, which now hosts the Russian mercenary company Wagner. On Saturday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki claimed that a group of “one hundred Wagner mercenaries” positioned in Belarus had moved closer to the Polish border, “a step towards even more hybrid attacks on Polish territory”. “They will probably be disguised as Belarusian border guards, helping illegal immigrants to enter Polish territory, to destabilize Poland,” Morawiecki said.
