Poland to move soldiers to east due to Wagner risks

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) - NATO-member Poland has decided to move military units to the country's east due to the Wagner Group's presence in Belarus, state news agency PAP reported on Friday.

"The Committee analyzed possible threats […] and Defense Minister and chairman of the Committee, Mariusz Blaszczak, has decided to move our military formations from the west to the east of Poland," Zbigniew Hoffmann, secretary of the Committee of the Council of Ministers for National Security and Defense Affairs, told PAP.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry said Wagner mercenaries have started training Belarusian special forces at a military range near the border with Poland.

Ukraine’s UNIAN agency reported that the sessions are expected to last for a week at a training ground near Brest, where troops of the Belarusian Special Operations Forces, representatives of the Wagner Group are based.

Between 2,500 and 3,000 soldiers from the Wagner Group may be in Belarus, said ex- Belarusian ambassador to Poland Pavel Latushka.

Blasczak said last week that Poland had begun moving over 1,000 troops to the east of the country. Warsaw is also sending 500 police officers to boost security at the border.

People living near the Belarusian border have reportedly been able to hear shooting and helicopters from across the border.

Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin moved to Belarus after an aborted mutiny in Russia.

He was recently seen in a grainy video welcoming Wagner fighters in Belarus.