Poland, Baltics tell Belarus to expel Russian mercenaries

Poland and the Baltic nations called on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to expel Russian mercenaries from his country and agreed on a plan to potentially shut the border in response to escalating tension.

In the event of an armed incident or an organized influx of migrants across the frontier, Poland and the Baltic states — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — will coordinate on shutting the border with Belarus, the four nations agreed in Warsaw on Monday. They warned of the threat posed by Wagner mercenaries even after the death this month of the group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

“We’re expecting potential incidents — also of a military nature — carried out with the members of that group,” Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski told reporters. “We are determined to undertake joint action” at the frontier, he said, adding that the mechanisms also count for the states’ direct borders with Russia.

Authorities on NATO’s eastern flank raised the alarm in recent weeks after the mercenaries decamped to Belarus, part of a deal with Prigozhin after his failed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in late June. Polish authorities announced the deployment of additional troops to the border, while a senior official in Warsaw called for the “complete isolation” of Belarus.

But even before Prigozhin’s death in a plane crash this month — Russian investigators confirmed Saturday that he was on board the aircraft that went down — reports emerged that Wagner camps within Belarus were shrinking, while Ukrainian authorities said many mercenaries were returning to Russia.

“Considering that Prigozhin is no longer there, the anxiety has decreased a bit,” Latvian Interior Minister Maris Kucinskis told TV3 before the meeting.

Still, with Russia’s war in Ukraine in its 18th month, leaders in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have been on alert. Belarus plans to host military drills with allies from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization during the first week of September. Key exercises will take place along the Polish border in western Belarus.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has said Wagner personnel have been deployed near Suwalki, a narrow strip of the Polish-Lithuania border, almost equidistant between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea. The 100-kilometer (62-mile) corridor has been identified by NATO officials as a potentially vulnerable choke point separating the Baltic member states from the rest of the military alliance and the EU.

The border area has also been a source of tensions since 2021, when Belarus sent migrants from the Middle East and Africa into Poland and the Baltic states, a move decried by EU authorities who said it was meant to create havoc and destabilize the region.

“We are ready to act in a united fashion to come to the rescue, to take decisive decisions — including closure of the border,” Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite told reporters on Monday. Lithuania plans to close two more of its six checkpoints with Belarus after shutting two earlier this month.