A hundred mercenaries from the Russian-linked private Wagner militia have approached the border with Poland, the Polish prime minister said on Saturday. Mateusz Morawiecki assured at a press conference that the mercenaries had approached the Suwalki Corridor, a strategic stretch of Polish territory located between Belarus and Kaliningrad, a Russian city separated from the mainland.
Poland, a member of NATO and the European Union, fears for security on its eastern border with Ukraine and Russia’s ally Belarus. Fears have grown since Wagner’s mercenaries settled in Belarus after his short-lived rebellion in Russia weeks ago.
The Polish-Belarusian border has been under tension for several years, when large contingents of migrants from the Middle East and Africa arrived there to try to enter the EU through Poland and Lithuania. The Polish government accuses Russia and Belarus of using migrants to destabilize Poland and other EU countries. It calls migration a form of hybrid warfare and has erected a high wall along part of its border with Belarus.
“Now the situation becomes even more dangerous,” Morawiecki told reporters. “This is certainly one more step towards a new hybrid attack on Polish territory.” Morawiecki was speaking during a visit to an arms factory in Gliwice, southern Poland, where German Leopard tanks used by the Ukrainian army are repaired.
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