"Wagner soldiers can enter the EU"

Russia's invasion of Ukraine 

 

"Wagner soldiers can cross the border into the EU"  

 

Joachim Kerpner  

Published at 6:16 p.m 

 

News  

 

Wagner soldiers have been stationed at the Suwalki Corridor in Belarus, just kilometers from Poland.  

 

Now Poland's prime minister is warning that Wagner soldiers can cross the border into the EU as illegal migrants. 

 

- The situation has become even more dangerous, says Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.  

 

On Saturday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced at a press conference in the city of Gliwice that over a hundred mercenaries belonging to the Wagner group have been placed near the Suwalki Corridor, a four-mile-wide corridor in Poland between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.  

 

- The situation has become even more dangerous, Morawiecki said according to the exiled Russian newspaper Meduza, adding that "this is a step towards further hybrid attacks on Polish territory".  

 

            

           Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki. Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert / AP 

 

The Polish prime minister also warned that Wagner soldiers could masquerade as Belarusian border guards and help illegal immigrants cross the border from Belarus into Poland and the EU.
 

He said the mercenaries could even enter the EU themselves, disguised as illegal immigrants, creating "further risks", according to Morawiecki.

Over a hundred mercenaries are said to have been deployed near the Suwalki corridor. Photo: Michal Dyjuk / AP  

Received asylum in Belarus  

 

In the fall of 2021, Belarus created chaos, when the country's border guards helped refugees from, among other things, the Middle East to get into Poland and the EU.

 

The Wagner group's attempted coup during the 2023 midsummer weekend in Russia ended when owner Yevgeny Prigozhin was only a few tens of miles from Moscow. 

 

Belarus leader Aleksandr Lukashenko then stated that he had agreed with Prigozhin if a march towards the Russian capital would cease. In return, the private army and its leaders were given sanctuary in Belarus.  

 

        

        The Wagner Army in Russia. Photo: AP / TT  

 

A senior representative of the Wagner group stated in mid-July that upwards of 10,000 Wagner soldiers were then on their way to Belarus.  

 

On July 23, Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko stated that Wagner soldiers pressured him with requests to let them "go on an excursion to Warsaw."