Poland sends troops to border after accusing Belarus of violating airspace

Poland's defence ministry said it was sending "additional forces and resources, including combat helicopters". The Polish defence ministry said it had informed NATO about the border violation by two Belarusian military helicopters and that the Belarusian charge d'affaires had been summoned to explain.

On the morning of August 1, the Polish military announced that its radar systems had not recorded any violations of its airspace. However, Washaw later changed his assessment and accused the Belarusian helicopters of flying "at a very low altitude, so the radar systems could not detect them."

Polish soldiers in front of the Border Guard headquarters in Michalowo, Poland in October 2021

Meanwhile, the Belarusian Defense Ministry wrote on the Telegram messaging app that Warsaw had changed its decision on the incident "clearly after consulting with outside parties."

The Belarusian Defense Ministry asserted that Poland had provided no evidence to substantiate its claim, and argued that "there had been no border violations by Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters".

In recent weeks, the Warsaw government has expressed growing concern about the presence of fighters from the Wagner private military group in Belarus. Following a deal to resolve the group’s insurgency in Russia in late June, an unspecified number of Wagner mercenaries have moved to Belarus and begun training the Belarusian army. Poland has also begun moving more than 1,000 of its troops closer to the border with Belarus.

Wagner soldiers train Belarusian special forces near NATO state border

On July 29, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said "more than 100" Wagner gunmen had arrived in the Belarusian town of Grodno, and he considered it "definitely a step towards a combined attack on Polish territory".

On August 1, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko mockingly said that Poland should thank him for controlling the Wagner mercenary force.

President Lukashenko joked during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month that some Wagner fighters were eager to enter Poland and “make a trip to Warsaw and Rzeszow (a Polish city near the Ukrainian border),” according to Reuters.

On August 1, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Washington was closely monitoring the situation but "did not see any specific threat from Wagner to Poland or any other NATO ally.

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