Attack on Poland planned? Wagner mercenaries four kilometers from the border!

Warsaw (Poland) - Following the alleged mutiny by Wagner mercenaries against the Russian government at the end of June, Poland has deployed troops to the east. This is because the notorious mercenary group is now in Belarus.

Belarusian soldiers and mercenaries from the private military company Wagner are currently taking part in maneuvers in Belarus.
Belarusian soldiers and mercenaries from the private military company Wagner are currently taking part in maneuvers in Belarus.  © Uncredited/Belarus' Defense Ministry/AP/dpa

A maneuver is currently taking place just four kilometers from the Polish border on a military training ground near the city of Brest. According to the Belarusian Ministry of Defense, fighters from the Russian private army Wagner are training Belarusian soldiers.

It is not known how many mercenaries are involved. According to various estimates, there are between 2000 and 10,000 fighters.

Reason enough for NATO and EU member Poland to deploy more of its own units on Poland's eastern border. A government representative did not say how many.

Experts pointed out that the "Wagnerians" would not directly endanger Poland's security and that an attack by the Wagner Group on the country is unlikely. Moreover, such actions would have no chance of success. However, their presence makes the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border even more tense than it already is, reported the Polish television station TVP.

In addition, the Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko (68), has threatened that the mercenaries want to make a "trip to Warsaw, to Rzeszów", reported Polish broadcaster Radio Zet, among others.

And that was not the only threat!

Will there be an attack in the Suwalki corridor?

Vladimir Putin (70, right) and his Belarusian ally, Alexander Lukashenko (68), at a meeting in St. Petersburg on July 23, 2023.
Vladimir Putin (70, right) and his Belarusian ally, Alexander Lukashenko (68), at a meeting in St. Petersburg on July 23, 2023.  © Alexander Demianchuk/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP/dpa

General Andrei Kartapolov (59), Chairman of the Duma Defense Committee, spoke about the role of the Wagner mercenaries on Russian state television on the show of presenter and propagandist Vladimir Solovyov (59).

There he said that they could "take the isthmus of Suwałki within a few hours", according to another TVP report.

The so-called Suwałki corridor (also known as the Suwałki Gap) is an approximately one hundred kilometer long border between Lithuania and Poland and forms the only land connection between Belarus and Russian territory in the Kaliningrad region.

It is also the only land link between the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and the other NATO partners.

The US news portal Politico wrote back in June 2022 that - should the war in Ukraine spread to other European countries - the Suwałki Gap would probably be the first target of Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin (70).

Nuclear-capable missile systems stationed in Kaliningrad

Shortly after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov (55) warned: "Don't forget Kaliningrad."

The Russian exclave is strategically important for Moscow, as it is not only home to a naval base of the Russian fleet with tens of thousands of soldiers. Russia has also stationed nuclear-capable missile systems there.

Barbed wire and a border post near the Lithuanian village of Vistytis mark the border between Lithuania and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
ContentImage.Description   © Doris Heimann/dpa
Polish soldiers have been preparing for a possible military emergency at the training ground in Nowa Deba for months. Poland shares a 418-kilometer border with Belarus, Russia's closest ally.
ContentImage.Description   © Darek Delmanowicz/PAP/dpa

In the meantime, the Ukrainian border guard has also warned that Belarus could use the mercenaries to destabilize the situation on the border with Ukraine or other countries.