What is happening on the border between Poland and Belarus and why NATO went on alert

Poland announced Thursday that it will deploy more troops to its border with belarus. The news came two days after Warsaw accused Minsk of violating its airspace, in the latest in a series of episodes raising tensions between this member country NATO and a key ally of the regime Vladimir Putin in Russia.

But what else is happening? Last weekend, the Prime Minister of PolandMateusz Morawiecki, denounced that some 100 combatants of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner which are in belarus they had approached the border with Polandspecifically to a strategically sensitive area known as Suwalki Gap.

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“Now the situation becomes even more dangerous,” Morawiecki told reporters. “This is certainly a step towards a new hybrid attack on Polish territory.”

the corridor of suwalki It is an extension of about 70 km in length that connects Belarus with Kaliningradthe Russian territory embedded in Europe.

As explained by BBC Mundo, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation retained kaliningrad. But the enclave, which is heavily militarized, remained on the other side of Lithuania and Polandseparate of Russia and his ally, belarus.

The Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. (AFP).

“The corridor between Kaliningrad and Belarus It’s definitely a bottleneck. not only in strictly military terms, but in logistical terms for NATO support to Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian forces”, Kenton White, professor of strategic studies at the University of Reading, England, and co-director of the Ways of War Center (Center on Aspects of War) at the University of Reading, told BBC Mundo.

“Because if the Russians closed off that corridor militarily, and also imposed a naval blockade on the Baltic, then the NATO would be left in a very difficult situation as to how to supply even basic materials, food and fuel to the three Baltic states”he added.

A Polish soldier is pictured during the construction of a concertina fence on the Polish-Russian border in the Kaliningrad Oblast, Zerdziny region, north-eastern Poland, on November 3, 2022. (Photo by Wojtek RADWANSKI / AFP) (WOJTEK RADWANSKI/)

Why is the Wagner Group in Belarus? After the fleeting rebellion against the Russian state led by Yevgeny Prigozhin On June 23-24, the Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenkoagreed to give refuge to the oligarch and the mercenary members of his paramilitary group.

So far, according to Morawiecki, some 4,000 men of Wagner they arrived to belarus.

A view of a camp to house Wagner fighters in Belarus. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP). (ALEXANDER NEMENOV/)

“Russia and belarus They increase their pressure on the border, intensifying the number of their provocations and we must be aware that this will increase”Morawiecki told reporters.

“These operations seek to destabilize, sow doubt, chaos, uncertainty and at the same time demonstrate the weakness of the eastern flank of the NATO to all our allies.” added.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks while meeting foreign media at his residence, on July 6, 2023. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP) (ALEXANDER NEMENOV/)

According to the AFP agency, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced on Thursday a reinforcement of border surveillance capabilities.

“If justified, the soldiers will use their weapons,” added Blaszczak, who was asked by the opposition to resign, accusing him of mismanaging the recent violation of Polish airspace.

On Tuesday morning, two Belarusian helicopters penetrated a few kilometers into the interior of Poland flying low.

But the Ministry of Defense belarus denied that its helicopters have crossed into Poland and said that “the accusations of violation of the border of Poland by the Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters of the Belarusian Air and Anti-Air Defense Forces are preposterous and were formulated by the Polish military-political leadership to justify the accumulation of forces and means near the Belarusian border”.

This photo from July 20, 2023 shows a joint training of Wagner fighters with servicemen from the Belarusian special forces at the Brestsky military terrain. (AFP). (HANDOUT/)

On Tuesday, Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński told local radio station RMF.FM that “unfortunately” there could be more provocations by the Belarusian and Russian forces in the future.

Barbara Yoxon, a professor of international politics at Lancaster University in England, told CNN that Warsaw “sees belarus as an accomplice to the current European security crisis”.

“Deploy troops in the corridor of suwalki would provide a direct link between Russia and Kaliningradwhich makes it a vitally important target for the Putin regime.”Yoxon added to CNN.

“By deploying troops both from the west (kaliningrad) as from the east (belarus), Russia could effectively isolate the Baltic states from their NATO allies in central and western Europe. This would allow Putin to potentially invade countries like Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia.”, he continued.

“Yeah Russia deploy troops in the corridor of suwalkiwould probably trigger an immediate military reaction from other countries in the NATOwho would see it as a direct attack on their member states in the region,” Yoxon alerted.

“Such a move would indicate that Russia is willing to escalate its confrontation with NATO into a war. on a large scale and risk a nuclear escalation on both sides,” he said.

Polish soldiers take positions during NATO military exercises near the Vistula Spit canal in northern Poland on April 17, 2023. (Photo by Wojtek Radwanski / AFP) (WOJTEK RADWANSKI/)

The Polish Ministry of Defense reported the helicopter incident to the NATOwhich said on Wednesday that it is monitoring the situation.

“The NATO It is closely monitoring the situation along its eastern borders, including yesterday’s incident in which two Belarusian military helicopters briefly crossed Polish airspace at low altitude,” a NATO official told the AP agency on the condition of anonymity. “We are in close contact with the Polish authorities on this matter and will continue to do what is necessary to ensure that all Alliance territory remains secure.”

The border between Poland and Belarus. (AFP).

Guntis Pujats, head of the Latvian State Border Guard, told Latvian media on Wednesday that security risks in the vicinity of the border with belarus have been high since Minsk began using immigrants as a tool of “hybrid warfare”, but they have increased with the advent of Cluster Wagner. He maintained that border guards have begun training a special task force in response, according to the AP agency.

While Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said this week that it would be tempting for the wagner group use their presence near the Lithuanian border “for various provocations”.

“So I think the threat is serious”Nauseda said during a visit Monday to a site on the border with belarus where seven Lithuanian officers were killed by Soviet paratroopers 32 years ago.

Source: Elcomercio