Warsaw, 29 July 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Saturday expressed concern about movement from Russian Wagner mercenary forces in Belarus toward the Polish border.

"We have information that more than 100 Wagner mercenaries have advanced towards the Suwałki Gap, not far from Grodno in Belarus," Morawiecki said, according to Poland's PAP news agency.

This makes the situation on the border "even more threatening," Morawiecki warned during a visit to an arms factory in Gliwice in southern Poland.

Grodno is located in the west of Belarus, about 15 kilometres from its border with NATO members Poland and Lithuania. The Suwałki Gap is a narrow land corridor on their territory between Belarus and Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.

In an emergency, Russia could cut off the Baltic states from the rest of NATO territory by capturing the area.

Morawiecki also noted that 16,000 attempted border crossings by migrants from Belarus had been recorded so far this year. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to "push them through to Poland," he said.

Regarding the presence of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus, Polish army officials spoke of a Russian propaganda action intended to cause alarm in Poland. An election campaign is currently underway in EU-member Poland before it elects a new parliament in autumn.

Photo: MIA archive