The Suwalki corridor is a hypothetical route from Belarus to the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation, passing along the border between Lithuania and Poland.
“We have information that more than 100 mercenaries of the Wagner group moved towards the Suwalki corridor and are located near Grodno in Belarus. What is this done for? This is certainly a step towards a further hybrid attack on Polish territory,” he said.
The head of government suggested that the Wagnerites might disguise themselves as Belarusian border guards and try to help illegal immigrants at the border cross over to the Polish side. There is a higher chance that they themselves will pretend to be illegal migrants and intend to enter Poland, Morawiecki said.
He also noted that in the past two years, Poland has been facing constant attacks on the border with Belarus. Only in 2023, according to him, 16 thousand attempts of illegal border crossing were recorded.
Context:
As of July 23, according to the State Border Service of Ukraine, there are already about 5,000 mercenaries in Belarus.
In mid-July, as reported Bild the head of the Russian State Duma Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov, on the air of one of the Russian propaganda shows, said that the PMC “Wagner” was sent to Belarus “not only and not so much” in order to train the Belarusian armed forces, but because “in which case” Russia will need the Suwalki corridor.
On July 23, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who calls himself the president of Belarus, said that the Wagnerites began to “strain” him, because they always “beg to go to the West”, in particular, to Poland. “Of course, I keep them in the center of Belarus, as agreed. I would not want to relocate them there. Because they are in a bad mood,” he said.
Due to the movement of the Wagnerites to Belarus, Poland decided to strengthen the defense of the eastern border. The government reported that both the number of troops on the border and the number of various barriers and fortifications would increase. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that Germany would help its NATO ally Poland in the event of a possible attack by Wagner militants from neighboring Belarus.
Bild recalled that Russian propagandists often mention the Suwalki corridor, since a hypothetical seizure of this territory would connect the Kaliningrad region of Russia and Belarus, cutting off Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia from other NATO countries.
2023-07-29 09:35:59
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