AS part of the deal that ended the short-term mutiny, Wagner members were offered the chance to either retire, join the Russian military, or go to Belarus together with their boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Those who remained on Prigozhin’s side are currently in Belarus to help train Minsk’s army.
Meanwhile, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Wagner wants to reach the polish capital of Warsaw and the city of Rzeszow, which they believe was a hub for providing Ukrainian forces with military hardware during the fighting for Artyomovsk, also known as Bakhmut.
Lukashenko told Putin, and quote they know where the military hardware came from during the fighting in Artyomovsk. So they have this internal feeling that Rzeszow is trouble.
“They know where the military hardware [to support Ukrainian troops] came from during the fighting in Artyomovsk [bakhmut]. So they have this internal feeling that Rzeszow is trouble,” Pres. Alexander Lukashenko said.
He also noted that the paramilitary knew what is going on around the union state of Russia and Belarus so he would not like to have them relocated somewhere away from Central Belarus, particularly given that they are in a “bad mood”.
Lukashenko also gave Putin a map that depicts the movement of Polish troops to the borders of the Union State of Russia and Belarus.
It can be remembered that in early July, the general command of the polish armed forces announced the transfer 1,000 servicemen and nearly 200 units of equipment from their 12th and 17th mechanized brigades to the eastern part of Poland.
And on Sunday, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said that a new sapper battalion will be formed in the northeastern Poland by the end of 2023.
The defense minister said that this unit will be created from scratch and is expected to bolster polish defenses in the Suwalki gap, a region separating the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad from Belarus.
Meanwhile, the United States said that it will defend Poland in case of any attack.
“Will say it is another in a series of irresponsible comments by Lukashenko. And the only thing I will reiterate, as I said about another matter earlier in this briefing, the United States will defend every inch,” Matthew Miller, Spokesperson, U.S., Department of Defense.
While NATO has the article 5 which states that an attack on one of NATO-member countries is considered an attack on all of them.
Russia and Belarus have a defense pact, and aside from Wagner forces currently in Belarus, there are also Russian troops stationed in the said country.
Russia also deployed their nuclear warheads to Belarus in June amid ongoing tensions with NATO over the conflict in Ukraine.
Putin has already declared that any attack on Belarus is considered as an attack against Russia.
