Wagner soldiers have been stationed near the Suwalki Corridor in Belarus, just kilometers away from Poland. Now, the Prime Minister of Poland warns that Wagner soldiers could cross the border into the EU as illegal migrants. ”The situation has become even more dangerous,” says Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. On Saturday, Morawiecki announced at a press conference in the city of Gliwice that over a hundred mercenary soldiers belonging to the Wagner Group have been placed near the Suwalki Corridor, a four-mile-wide corridor in Poland between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. ”The situation has become even more dangerous,” Morawiecki said, according to the Russian-language newspaper Meduza, adding that ”this is a step towards further hybrid attacks on Polish territory.”
Poland’s prime minister also warned that Wagner soldiers could disguise themselves as Belarusian border guards and help illegal immigrants cross the border from Belarus into Poland and the EU. He said that the mercenaries themselves could even enter the EU disguised as illegal immigrants, creating ”additional risks,” according to Morawiecki.
In the fall of 2021, Belarus created chaos when its border guards helped refugees from the Middle East, among other places, to enter Poland and the EU. The Wagner Group’s coup attempt during the Midsummer weekend in 2023 in Russia ended when owner Yevgeny Prigozhin was only a few hundred miles from Moscow. Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko then stated that he had reached an agreement with Prigozhin for the march towards the Russian capital to cease. In return, the private army and its leader were given sanctuary in Belarus.
A senior representative of the Wagner Group stated in mid-July that up to 10,000 Wagner soldiers were on their way to Belarus. On July 23, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko stated that Wagner soldiers were pressuring him to allow them to ”take a trip to Warsaw.”
