This morning, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced that 10,000 troops would be moved up to the border with Belarus. “About 10,000 soldiers will be on the border, of which 4,000 will directly support the Border Guard and 6,000 will be in the reserve,” the minister said in an interview for public radio, reported TVPWorld. “We move the army closer to the border with Belarus to scare away the aggressor so that it does not dare to attack us,” he explained.
In an interview with TASS, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin asserted that these Polish moves are based on a false pretext. “The deployment of PMC [private military company] Wagner forces in our brotherly republic is nothing more than another artificial pretext for Warsaw to start a new round of military preparations,” he said. According to Galuzin, Poland’s plans to “strengthen” the border with Belarus following the deployment of PMC Wagner forces in the republic are undoubtedly posing a threat to the security of the Union State.