2023-07-21 14:02 update: 2023-07-24, 13:37
Photo: PAP/Artur Reszko
The Polish defence minister has decided to move Polish military units to the eastern area of the country due to the Wagner mercenary group's presence in Belarus and its alleged joint exercises with Belarusian soldiers.
"Training or joint exercises of the Belarusian army and the Wagner Group are undoubtedly a provocation," Zbigniew Hoffmann, the secretary of the Government National Security Committee, told PAP.
"The committee analysed 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.
"Apart from training, the aim of these troops is to deter a potential aggressor," Hoffmann stated.
On Thursday, quoting the Belarusian Defence Ministry, Reuters reported that Wagner mercenaries had started to train Belarusian special troops at a military range near Brest, not far from the border with Poland.
The Ukrainian agency UNIAN reported that the training would last a week.
Following a 24-hour mutiny against the Russian military launched on June 23, a group of Wagner mercenaries entered Belarus. Poland's security services have already confirmed their presence in that country.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner Group leader, has not been seen in public since he left the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don late on June 24.
The Polish government has recently decided to deploy 500 police officers to the Belarusian border to support the 5,000 border guards and 2,000 soldiers already present. (PAP)
at/jd/jch
