2023-07-21 14:55:39
Vladimir Putin warned Poland on Friday that an attack on neighboring Belarus will mean an “aggression” against Russiaafter Warsaw announced the deployment of military units near the Belarusian border.
“As for Belarus, it is part of the State Union (with Russia). Aggression against Belarus will mean aggression against the Russian Federation. Given these We will respond with all means at our disposal.Putin said during a meeting of the Russian Security Council.
Poland decided to strengthen the security of its eastern flank with two military units after mercenaries from the Wagner Group began guarding the border between Belarus and Poland this week.
Putin also denounced the alleged plans by Poland and Lithuania to create a grouping of regular forces whose goal would be to “occupy” western Ukraine.
“The perspective is clear. If the Polish units enter, for example in Lviv or in other Ukrainian territories, they will stay. By the way, forever,” he stressed.
The Kremlin chief accused the Polish leadership of wanting to form “a kind of coalition and interfere directly in the conflict in Ukraine” in order to recapture what they consider to be “historical territories” of western Ukraine.
Putin accused Poland of wanting to occupy part of Ukraine. Photo: EFE/Ramil Sitdikov/Sputnik.
“It is well known that they also yearn for Belarusian territories,” he warned.
The Russian president accused the leaders of some Eastern European countries of turning “Russophobia” into an instrument of their internal policy, which “stoke the flame of war with force”.
For this reason, he considered “a very dangerous game” to use Poles, Lithuanians and “everyone who is necessary” as “cannon fodder”. “The authors of such plans should think about the consequences,” he said.
Putin commissioned Sergei Narishkin, head of the Foreign Espionage Service (SVR for its initials in English), to closely monitor developments in that area, who also participated in the meeting.
According to Narishkin, the reason for these plans by Poland is that in Warsaw they are coming to the conclusion that “the defeat of Ukraine is only a matter of time”.
In this regard, Putin insisted that kyiv’s Western backers are “clearly disappointed” with the Ukrainian counter-offensivewhich began on June 4, in which “tens of thousands” of enemy soldiers reportedly died.
He also stressed that NATO arsenals are “largely depleted”, while the rates of weapons production in the West do not allow rapid replenishment of ammunition stocks on the front lines.
Poland denounces Russian infiltration
On the other hand, also this Friday, the Polish Minister of Special Services, Stanislaw Zaryn, warned about “large-scale infiltration attempts” by “agents in the service of Russia” and recalled that in the last 14 months 22 people accused of espionage have been arrested.
In an interview published today, Zaryn – who coordinates Polish border surveillance and intelligence services – stated that following Warsaw’s decision to expel 45 diplomats from the Russian embassy in March 2022, “the Russian authorities were left baffled” and “unable to carry out certain activities using their diplomatic staff”.
That, according to the minister, forced Moscow to “recruit new people to try to infiltrate Poland on a large scale”, since “for obvious reasons, the world today pays attention to Poland much more than before, and the demand for information about our country has increased significantly”.
“We have detected an increase (in activity) in Russian services and Belarusians, which is confirmed by the numbers: in the last 14 months we have detained a total of 22 spies from these two countries,” Zaryn emphasized.
In messages posted this Friday on his social networks, Zaryn also referred to the presence of mercenaries from the Wagner group in Belarus and wrote that Poland “is monitoring the situation and verifying what the members of the armed group are doing and where they are located.”
Zaryn commented on reports that the Belarusian Army and Wagner’s guerrillas carry out joint training, which he described as “unsurprising”, adding that Yevgeny Prygozhin’s mercenaries “have not gone to Belarus to withdraw, but to continue carrying out Kremlin missions.”
According to the Polish minister, there could be “more than 1,000” Wagner troops in a provisional camp located about 80 kilometers from Minsk.
Warsaw decided a few days ago to transfer two military units to bases near its border with Belarus.
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