Poland eyeing Wagner threat as mercenaries gather across border

Members of the Wagner group on the street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, June 24. Photo: Vasily Deryugin/Kommersant Publishing House.

The Polish intelligence service said it was monitoring the threat posed by hundreds of Wagner mercenaries heading to Belarus.

The warning came two weeks after the Polish military fortified the border with Belarus, and amid jokes in Telegram channels of Wagner that the Kremlin mercenaries can go to Warsaw.

“Now there may be several hundred of them,” said Stanislav Zaryn, deputy head of the Polish intelligence services. “Polish services are monitoring the situation to find out how many Wagnerites will end up in Belarus.”

Lithuania has also asked NATO to reinforce its forces along the border with Belarus after Wagner fighters were ordered to redeploy following their failed uprising in June . The first convoy of Wagner forces entered Belarus on Saturday.

Wagner Z Group, a Telegram channel with 75,000 subscribers, said the mercenary forces would become a permanent garrison in Belarus.

He also ridiculed Poland for ordering 1,000 soldiers to fortify its borders when there could potentially be 8,500 Wagner troops stationed in Belarus. » /> Fighters of the Wagner group in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, June 24. Photo: Reuters

“Anxiety is growing in Eastern Europe. They are more afraid of «musicians» than Russia's nuclear arsenal,» the Wagner Z Group said.

Wagner was named after a Russian special forces officer with the call sign Wagner. As part of her PR brand, she calls her fighters «musicians».

Wagner's mercenaries became famous for capturing Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine in May after an eight-month siege that killed thousands of fighters, but the most valuable operations are in Africa, where it offers a range of services to autocrats in exchange for mining concessions.

The Wagner group's global operations

Reports say the Russian government wanted to take over these contracts as it tried to disband Wagner, but Telegram channels associated with Wagner have stated that his forces are simply moving in and out of Africa.

This has now been confirmed by the British Ministry of Defense, which has said that Wagner's promotion of his operations in Africa showed that it was going to keep control over them even after leaving Ukraine.

“The (Russian) state is probably ready to accept Wagner’s desire to maintain its extensive presence on the continent,” the message says.

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