Lukashenka is 'trying hard to keep Wagner's troops from attacking Poland'

Alexander Lukashenko allowed Wagner troops from Vladimir Putin's Russia to enter Belarus Photo: Alexander Demyanchuk/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP Lukashenka said.

The Belarusian leader made a statement during the meeting with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, a few days after Warsaw accused Moscow of using Wagner and Minsk to destabilize Eastern Europe.

He said: “The Wagnerites are starting to stretch us out. I ask: «Why do you want to go to the West?» [They answer:] “We want to go on an excursion to Warsaw, to Rzeszow.”

Mr. Lukashenko also gave Putin what he said was a map of Poland's plan to attack Belarus. This week, the Russian president warned that an attack on Belarus is tantamount to an attack on Russia.

“As we can see, the ground is being prepared,” Lukashenka said.

Poland has sent additional soldiers to its border and said it has been following the Wagner fighters since they moved to Belarus earlier this month. Analysts warn that the Kremlin may stage the incident «under a false flag» to justify an attack on Poland.

Wagner soldiers train Belarusian special forces on the border with Poland.

St. Petersburg, early Sunday. Photo: Alexander Demyanchuk/Sputnik/Kremlin/Pool/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

On Sunday, the Belarusian public organization Hajun Project reported that the 10th column of Wagner fighters had entered the country. It said the convoy contained 10 vehicles, including trucks and vans.

After the meeting, Putin and Lukashenko visited a cathedral in St. Petersburg and then posed for pictures with seemingly adoring passers-by.

This was a departure from Putin's usual tactic of keeping his distance from ordinary Russians. Analysts say that after the June Wagner mutiny, Putin needed to show any potentially rebellious Russian elite that he was still popular with the common people.

At the end of June, a few days after the Wagner mutiny, Putin went to Derbent, on the Caspian Sea coast in Dagestan, and posed with ordinary Russians.

For years, he was very nervous about contracting Covid-19, because of which visitors were quarantined for several days. During his carefully orchestrated outing on Sunday, a pro-Kremlin journalist asked if he was still worried about the virus.

“People are more important than quarantine,” Putin replied.