Poland denied on Friday that any of its military helicopters violated Belarusian airspace amid tensions between the two neighbors. “These are lies and provocations on the part of Belarus,” Jacek Goryszewski, spokesman for the operational command of the Polish armed forces, told Agence France-Presse. “There were no such violations. This is evident from the pilot reports and radar system recordings,” he added.
“It is possible that this is a Belarusian provocation, which would be quite logical,” said Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski. “We will analyze the situation. However, the statements of the Belarusian side should be taken with extreme caution,” he added to Polsat News television.
These reactions come after Belarus summoned the representative in Minsk of Poland, a member of NATO, on Friday and denounced the “unacceptable” violation of its airspace by a military helicopter in the afternoon. “Belarusian diplomats drew the attention of the Polish side to the inadmissibility of this violation and urged Warsaw to take steps to rule out such incidents in the future,” the Foreign Ministry said.
“Poland’s charge d’affaires in Belarus has been summoned to the ministry,” he added in a statement. Belarusian border guards claimed on Telegram, video in support, that a “Polish Mi-24 military helicopter crossed the state border at very low altitude at a depth of 1,200 meters before returning”.
The episode comes amid tensions between Minsk and its western neighbours. On Monday, Warsaw and the Baltic countries had demanded Belarus to “immediately expel” the Wagner group from its territory, which they consider a threat to their own security.
In a sign of the falling out, Poland and Lithuania have erected fences along their borders with Belarus, and Warsaw plans to deploy up to 10,000 troops there. Lithuania, for its part, closed on August 18 two of the six border crossings with its pro-Russian neighbor in reaction to the presence of Wagner.
Thousands of Wagner fighters had traveled to Belarus after their abortive rebellion in Russia in June. In particular, they participated in the training of local soldiers, with Minsk’s agreement. After the recent death of Wagner’s boss in a plane crash, Alexander Lukashenko said he wanted to keep up to 10,000 of the group’s fighters in his country.
