Poland to Send Two Thousand Military to Reinforce Border with Belarus

Poland will send 2,000 military personnel to the border with Belarus to stop illicit border crossing attempts - twice as many as requested by the Border Guard Service. This was announced on Wednesday by Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wonsik to the state news agency PAP. “This reinforcement will not be 1,000, but 2,000 soldiers. This decision was made by the Security Committee, this decision was made by Minister (of Defence. - Ed.) Mariusz Blaszczak,” he told the agency. According to the deputy minister, the military will reach the border within the next two weeks. As he explained, they will operate in both Podlaskie and Lubelskie voivodeships. On Monday, Wonsik said that the border guard requires reinforcement with another 1,000 military personnel. He said that now all attempts to illegally infiltrate migrants into Poland are organised by the Belarusian authorities. “If there were real border guards on that side, not smuggling services, these (illegal. - Ed.) crossings would not exist at all,” he said. Now the activity of the Border Guard Service on the Polish-Belarusian border is supported by about 2 thousand military personnel. Poland is increasingly concerned about the situation on the border after hundreds of mercenaries of the PMC Wagner arrived in the country last month at the invitation of self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.