On the 29th of July, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki addressed a news conference during a visit to an arms factory in Gliwice, in southern Poland – the place where the Ukrainian army’s Leopard tanks undergo repairs. While addressing the media personnel, the Polish PM warned that the situation at the Polish – Belarusian border is getting increasingly dangerous.
He expressed concerns about the hostile movement of Russia’s private militia, Wagner mercenary forces inside Belarusian territory near the Polish border. He claimed that the Wagner mercenaries are preparing a “hybrid attack” on Polish territory from the Belarusian side and more than 100 mercenaries had charged towards the narrow but strategic Suwalki gap near Grodno.
Poland’s Prime Minister said, “We have information that more than 100 Wagner mercenaries have advanced towards the Suwalki Gap, not far from Grodno in Belarus.”
Morawiecki claimed that the Wagner group will try to destabilise Poland through the influx of illegal immigrants and disguising themselves among these immigrants and infiltrating Polish territories.
He said, “They will probably be disguised as Belarusian border guards and will help illegal immigrants to enter Polish territory, and destabilise Poland, but they will also probably try to infiltrate Poland pretending to be illegal immigrants and this creates additional risks.”
Suwalki corridor: The crucial missing link connecting the Russian mainland to its Baltic exclave via Belarusian territory
The Suwalki Gap is a very strategic stretch of Polish territory and is only 60 miles long. It has equal strategic significance not only for NATO members particularly Poland and Lithuania but also for Russia and its all-weather ally Belarus. It is situated between Belarus and Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.
If this strategic land corridor comes under Russian-ally Belarusian control through Wagner mercenaries or by other means, Russia’s only exclave surrounded by NATO members will have the land corridor for logistic requirements and meet any eventuality with NATO members in case of conflict in the Baltic region, a territory far from Russia’s mainland.
The Polish government has alleged that more than a thousand Wagner mercenaries were stationed in Belarusian territory to achieve its objective on this strategic Suwalki corridor.
Evidently, the current theatre where the action is supposedly taking place is Grodno. It is located in the west of Belarus just 15km (nine miles) from its border with NATO members Poland and Lithuania.
The heightened threat of illegal migrants and Wagner Mercenaries post Mutiny fall-out in Russia
Poland is a member of both the European Union (EU) and NATO. Still, it has been expressing concerns regarding its security at the eastern border with Belarus. Polish government’s fears gained strength ever since Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered peace to end the short-lived Wagner’s rebellion in Russia.
As part of the ‘peace deal’, Lukashenko gave refuge to the rebel Wagner group and asked the mercenary group to train his country’s military. Additionally, Wagner and Belarusian forces held joint military exercises near the border with Poland, increasing security concerns for the Polish side.
As a countermeasure, Poland moved more than 1,000 troops to the eastern border earlier this month.
In his press conference, Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki stated that approximately 16,000 migrant attempts to cross the border from Belarus had been documented this year. He blamed Belarusian President Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin for pushing migrants through to Poland.
The Polish government has alleged that Russia and Belarus have been using migrants to destabilise Poland and other EU member nations. According to Poland, this is part of hybrid warfare. Following the migrant row, Poland has built a high wall along part of its border with Belarus.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, 30 July, RT reported that the Belarusian president Lukashenko told Putin that the Wagner fighters were keen to “go on tour to Warsaw”. The report added that the Wagner mercenaries want to settle a score with those they believe have been providing Ukrainian troops with military hardware.
Amid Poland-Belarus border row, Russia claimed that it foiled a Ukrainian “terrorist attack”
On Sunday, 30 July, the Russian Defence Ministry stated that it has foiled a Ukrainian ‘terrorist attack’ on Crimea. The Ministry added that all of Kyiv’s drones were either downed by air defenses or neutralized by electronic warfare.
The Defence Ministry said that the Russian forces have intercepted a Ukrainian attack on the Crimean peninsula involving 25 drones. However, no casualties or destruction in these drone raids were reported.
In a statement early on Sunday, the ministry said Moscow had repelled “an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack with 25 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles” on facilities in Crimea.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, 16 Ukrainian drones were shot down by Russian air defenses while another nine were suppressed by electronic warfare. They crashed in the water near Cape Tarkhankut in the western part of the peninsula.
Russian Ministry of Defence added that three drones were intercepted in Moscow City in an attempted attack on the business and shopping development in the west of the Russian capital.
In their statement, the Ministry said, “One Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was destroyed in the air by air defense forces over the territory of the Odintsovo district of Moscow region. Two more drones were jammed using electronic warfare capabilities and after losing control, they crashed on the territory of a complex of non-residential buildings in Moscow City.”
According to the Russian state news agency TASS, there was a strike in the building of the “IQ-Quarter” located in “Moscow City” (shopping center). In the wake of these drone attacks, Russia had to briefly shut its Vnukovo airport.
Apart from drone attacks, Ukraine also launched conventional missiles as a part of its major offensive against Russia on Saturday, 29 July.
