Fighters from the private military company (PMC) Wagner want to “visit” Poland, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin on Sunday.
According to Lukashenko, the PMC'S members want to reach the Polish capital Warsaw and the city of eastern city of Rzeszow, which they believe was a hub for providing Ukrainian troops with military hardware during the fighting for the key Donbass city of Artyomovsk (also known as Bakhmut).
After the failed mutiny attempt in June, Wagner members were offered the opportunity to retire, sign contracts with the Russian military, or relocate to Belarus together with the group’s chief, Evgeny Prigozhin.
According to Lukashenko, the fighters hosted in the country are starting to “concern” local authorities, as they want to “go on tour to Poland” to visit Warsaw and Rzeszow, which they believe was a hub for providing Ukrainian troops with military hardware during the fighting for the key Donbass city of Artyomovsk (also known as Bakhmut).
“They know where the military hardware [to support Ukrainian troops] came from during the fighting in Artyomovsk,” the Belarusian president explained on Sunday during his meeting with Putin. “So they have this internal feeling that Rzeszow is trouble.”
He also noted that the Wagner members know “what’s going on around the Union State [of Russia and Belarus],” so he wouldn’t like to have them relocated somewhere away from the center of the country, particularly given that they are in what he characterized as a “bad mood.”
On Friday, Putin claimed that Polish leaders are planning to form a NATO-backed coalition to intervene in the Ukraine conflict and take over parts of western Ukraine. Belarusian territory might also be endangered, he added, promising retaliation in case of any aggression against the Union State member.