Poland to beef up forces on border with Belarus

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) — Poland on Sunday announced plans to deploy more troops and nearly 200 military vehicles to its border with Belarus.

"Over 1,000 soldiers and almost 200 units of equipment from the 12th and 17th Mechanized Brigades are starting to move to the east of the country as part of the Safe Podlasie operation," Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Twitter.

"This is a demonstration of our readiness to respond to attempts at destabilization near the border of our country," added Blaszczak.

In late June, Poland's Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said the government decided to reinforce the eastern border due to the presence of Russia's paramilitary Wagner Group in Belarus.

On July 2, Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski announced that Poland would deploy 500 more police officers to join 5,000 border guards and 2,000 soldiers guarding the border with Belarus.