NATO Neighbors Demand Belarus Expel Wagner Fighters

Government officers from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia demanded on Monday that Belarus expel the Russian mercenary group Wagner from its territory, amid heightened tensions associated to Russia’s struggle in Ukraine.

The 4 nations — that are all NATO members and, apart from Estonia, share a border with Belarus — mentioned in a assertion that the presence of Wagner fighters posed a menace to their territorial integrity.

Poland and Lithuania already closed a number of border checkpoints in latest months, citing safety issues. Speaking at a news convention in Warsaw together with his counterparts from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Poland’s inside minister, Mariusz Kaminski, mentioned that the 4 nations would shutter all their border crossings with Belarus “if there is a critical incident.”

The officers’ feedback got here only a day after Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the chief of Wagner, was confirmed useless, plunging the mercenary group into an unsure future. The fighters relocated to Belarus after Mr. Prigozhin staged a short-lived mutiny in opposition to Russia’s navy management in June.

Belarus’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, provided exile to Mr. Prigozhin and his forces beneath a deal that ended the rise up.

Earlier this month, leaders of Poland and Lithuania warned in opposition to “provocations” and “sabotage actions” by the Wagner forces. And Poland — the place the nationalist governing get together, Law and Justice, has tried to painting itself as powerful on nationwide safety forward of a normal election in October — despatched a further 2,000 troops to bolster its border with Belarus.

The demise of Mr. Prigozhin has solely elevated the uncertainty over the way forward for Wagner, as Western officers say the Kremlin is contemplating methods to carry it beneath extra direct management whereas retaining its preventing energy.

In latest weeks, a few of the Wagner troops stationed in Belarus — which numbered no less than 4,000, in line with Polish authorities — had been reported to have left the nation over low pay. But their whereabouts have been unclear, elevating issues amongst Western nations.

Border tensions with Belarus predate the Ukraine invasion, notably on the difficulty of migrant crossings, which was talked about within the joint assertion. In 2021, Polish and European authorities accused Mr. Lukashenko of luring migrants from the Middle East and Africa with flights and visas after which pushing them into Poland in an effort to destabilize the nation and acquire diplomatic leverage. In response, Poland constructed an 18-foot razor-wire-topped wall alongside 115 miles of the border.