Lithuania, Poland mull jointly closing border with Belarus over Wagner

Lithuania and Poland consider jointly shutting their border with Belarus if there are serious incidents involving the Russian mercenary group Wagner along the frontiers, officials of the two countries have confirmed.

“The discussions are real. The possibility of closing the border exists,” Lithuanian Deputy Interior Minister Arnoldas Abramavičius told reporters on Friday.

Reuters cited Poland’s interior minister as saying on Thursday that such a possibility was being discussed with the neighbouring countries.

Last week, Warsaw decided to move military units to its east after Wagner mercenaries began training Belarusian special forces a few kilometres from the country’s border.

Abramavičius said he had information that on Thursday, representatives of the Polish government visited the border with Belarus to assess the threats.

“They identified about 1,200 Wagner fighters who are on Belarusian territory and some of them are close to the border,” the deputy minister noted.

He said he did not think Poland could be intimidated by comments made by Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko who said that the Russian mercenaries “are asking to go West, ask me for permission to go on a trip to Warsaw, to Rzeszow”.

“As a military power, Poland is not in great danger, I imagine. But as a possibility of provocation, yes, it does [exist]. It could be some groups of refugees, irregular migrants being transferred to cause some kind of unrest,” Abramavičius said.

Wagner fighters started coming to Belarus after their failed June mutiny in Russia, which was reportedly brought to an end by Lukashenko who allowed Russian mercenaries to move to his country.