Poland and the Baltics on Monday demanded that Belarus expel the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński said.
“We call on (Belarusian President Alexander) Lukashenko’s regime to immediately expel the Wagner group from Belarus,” Kamiński said after a meeting with his Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian counterparts.
According to the Polish authorities, thousands of mercenaries from the Wagner paramilitary group are stationed in Belarus and President Lukashenko recently wanted that number increased to 10,000.
“There are several thousand, partly criminals, released from Russian prisons after promising to participate in the war in Ukraine, deeply demoralized and accused of war crimes. This is a large group, capable of anything,” Kamiński stressed. .
The Polish minister fears that his presence in Belarus threatens international security and warned the Lukashenko regime that “in the event of a critical incident on the border with Belarus, (…) all border crossings (with this country) that are still are open it will be closed”.
In addition, the ministers of Poland and the Baltic countries called on Belarus to “immediately return from the border area to their countries of origin all illegal immigrants who are there hosted by Belarusian services.”
These countries accuse Belarus and Russia of having orchestrated a wave of immigration aimed at destabilizing the region and the entire European Union, an accusation rejected by the Belarusian authorities.
Source: TSF
