Poland and Lithuania are actively discussing threats by Russia's private Wagner mercenary force being moved close to NATO's eastern flank to destabilise the military alliance, Poland's prime minister said on Thursday.
Wagner soldiers have begun training with the Belarus national army, prompting Poland to start moving more than 1,000 troops closer to the border. On Tuesday it accused Belarus of violating its airspace with military helicopters.
The settlement of Grodno is 16 kilometers from the Lithuanian border and 8 kilometers from the Polish border.
"We need to be aware that the number of provocations will rise," Mateusz Morawiecki said after meeting Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda in eastern Poland.
"The Wagner group is extremely dangerous and they are being moved to the eastern flank to destabilize it."
The politicians met in the Suwalki Gap, a sparsely populated but strategically important area of Polish territory between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad that joins the Baltic states to other NATO members.
A part of PMC "Wagner" took a position in Grodno region and approached our border. This situation is very favorable for the organization of provocations both on the border of Poland and Belarus, as well as on the border of Lithuania and Belarus."
Nauseda said the number of Wagner fighters in Belarus could be higher than 4,000.
"We must not only talk about measures at the national level but also ... what should be done if this situation becomes even more complicated, including the closure of the border with Belarus," Nauseda said.
"This should be done in a coordinated manner between Poland, Lithuania and Latvia."
Belarus allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to use its territory as a launch pad for the Ukraine invasion, but has not committed its own troops to the war.
Saying this, Nauseda called "Wagner" mercenaries not inexperienced children, but a serious force.
The Lithuanian president admitted that they are very dangerous people who have experienced combat on the battlefield.
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