Poland may shut border with Belarus over Wagner Group fears
The Polish government is mulling a full border closure with Belarus as one of the measures to protect the country against the backdrop of the deteriorating security situation in the wake of the Wagner Group deployment in the neighboring country.
This was stated in an interview with CNN by the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Pawel Jablonski, Ukrinform reports.
Poland is considering any steps that will be necessary to protect their territory and citizens, including the “complete isolation” of Belarus, complete border closure, he said.
According to Jablonski, shutting the border with Belarus would be a last resort measure that Warsaw would like to avoid if possible but, should attacks and attempts to destabilize the country continue, Poland would have no other way out, the deputy minister added.
The Polish official also stated that the "threat is very real", claiming that the Wagner mercenaries were trying to infiltrate the territory of Poland.
More attempts at attacks on Poland’s border and possibly new attempts to violate the country’s airspace are expected, Jablonsky said.
He also stated that Poland is deploying more and more troops toward the Belarusian border.
As reported, on August 1, two Belarusian helicopters conducting training near the border violated Polish airspace.
Polish Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak convened the National Security and Defense Committee, ordering that the number of troops stationed at the border be increased and additional forces and equipment be deployed, including combat helicopters. The incident was reported to NATO.
The Ministry of Defense also recalled that Moscow and Belarus have recently intensified hybrid hostile operations against Poland.
On August 1, the Chargé d'affaires of Belarus was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, where he received a strong protest over the airspace violation incident.
On August 4, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland announced it had provided the government of Belarus with convincing evidence of the incident involving the two helicopters.