Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the paramilitary group wants to go on a „tour“ of Poland during a meeting with Vladimir Putin Sunday.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko warned on Sunday that the Wagner Group wants to march on Poland during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin exiled the Wagner Group, a paramilitary unit that previously fought alongside his troops in Ukraine, to Belarus following an attempted mutiny by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin against Moscow’s military leadership last month. The transfer fueled concerns about stability across Eastern Europe, including Poland, which shares a strategically critical northeastern border with Belarus. The Polish military has transferred troops near its Belarusian border amid threats that the Wagner Group could attempt to seize the Suwalki Gap and cut off the Baltic states from the rest of Europe.
The Suwałki Gap, a small but strategically important strip of Polish territory between Russia and the exclave of Kaliningrad, has long been a sticking point for Moscow.
Lukashenko, a close ally to Putin amid the Ukraine invasion who helped broker a deal with Prigozhin to end the attempted Wagner rebellion, said the paramilitary group’s leaders are now itching to attack Poland, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
