Poland, Lithuania, Latvia may shut borders with Belarus ‘in event of serious incidents involving Wagner’

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) - Poland, Lithuania and Latvia may jointly close their borders with Belarus in the event of "serious incidents involving the Wagner Group" along their borders with Belarus, Poland's Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said.

"I do not exclude that if we decide that this is the right answer at the moment, we will lead to the complete isolation of Belarus," Kaminski said on late Thursday.

Earlier this year, the three countries closed some of their border crossings with Belarus and ramped up sanctions.

On Thursday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak also visited the border village of Polowce alongside Kaminski.

Kaczynski, who is also chairman of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, said Poland would do everything it could to "repel provocations or aggression."

He blamed Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin for the Polish-Belarusian border dispute, saying that Poland will continue to fortify the border with Belarus.

Residents of the Polish town of Terespol, located 8 kilometers (five miles) from the border, reportedly hear regular shooting and see military helicopters overhead after Russia’s Wagner Group mercenary army arrived in Brest, the Belarusian town just across the border.

Reports indicate that units of the Belarusian Special Operations Forces are training with the Wagner Group at the Brest military range, near the village of Pryluki only 3.2 kilometers (two miles) from the Bug River.

Blasczak said Poland is moving over 1,000 troops to the towns of Biala Podlaska and Kolno in the east of the country and 500 police to beef up security at the border.