Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, said that as he struggle to prevent the mercenaries from attacking Poland, situations are “starting to get tense with the Wagner group because they want to march on Warsaw.”
“Maybe I should not say it, but I will. The Wagner group stressed: ‘We want to go to the West. Let us go.’ I said, why do you want to go to the West? ‘Well, to go on a tour to Warsaw, to Rzeszow’,” Lukashenko said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tass News Agency reported.
“I keep them in the centre, as agreed; Belarus does not want to move them there because their mood is bad. Moreover, to their credit, they know what is going on around the Union State. Well, it’s just a touch,” Lukashenko said.
Washington-based think tank Institute of Study of War (ISW) wrote in an assessment: “Lukashenko told Putin that the Wagner Group in Belarus will remain in central Belarus, likely subtly reminding Putin of the threat the Wagner military organization still poses to him and underlining Lukashenko’s control over that power.”
It added: “Lukashenko’s statements were likely meant to make Putin reflect on the uncomfortable (for Putin) fact that Wagner’s new garrison in Belarus puts its forces half as far from Moscow as Wagner’s previous base in southern Russia.”
Poland is sending more troops towards the Belarusian border in response to the Wagner forces’ entry there following a brief mutiny in Russia last month.
The meeting occurred two days after Moscow warned that any hostilities with partner Belarus would be considered an assault on Russia. Putin said that Moscow would retaliate against any hostility shown towards Minsk using all available measures.
Although Lukashenka did not send his soldiers to Ukraine, he permitted Moscow to utilize Belarusian soil to begin its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Since then, he has met with Putin frequently.
Meanwhile, Wagner Fighters have been training Belarusian Special Forces on Poland’s border.
On the other hand, the Polish government considers this a provocation and said, “Training or joint exercises of the Belarusian army and the Wagner Group are undoubtedly a provocation,” said Zbigniew Hoffmann, the secretary of the Government National Security Committee.
“The committee analyzed possible threats, such as, for instance, the deployment of Wagner Group units. Therefore, the defence minister and the committee chairman, Mariusz Blaszczak, decided to move our military formations from the West to the east of Poland,” Hoffmann said.
He added: “Apart from training, these troops aim to deter a potential aggressor.”
