Poland said on Sunday that it will dispatch 500 police officers to the border with Belarus to bolster security measures
The interior minister, Mariusz Kaminski, tweeted, “Due to the tense situation on the border with Belarus, I have decided to increase the reinforcements with 500 policemen from the preventive and counter-terrorism units.”
According to the minister, Poland currently has 2,000 soldiers and 5,000 border guards on its border.
W związku z napiętą sytuacją na granicy z 🇧🇾, podjąłem decyzję o wzmocnieniu naszych sił grupą 500 funkcjonariuszy @PolskaPolicja z oddziałów prewencji i kontrterrorystami. Dołączą oni do 5000 funkcjon. @Straz_Graniczna i 2000 żołnierzy pilnujących bezpieczeństwa tej granicy 🇵🇱
— Mariusz Kamiński (@Kaminski_M_) July 2, 2023
Since 2021, Belarus has come under fire from Poland for allegedly staging a false migrant crisis at the border by transporting individuals from the Middle East and Africa in an effort to force them into Poland.
In spite of the fact that the numbers have been progressively rising in recent months and are still far fewer than in 2021, the Polish Border Guard reported on Sunday that 187 persons attempted to cross illegally from Belarus into Poland on Saturday.
According to a spokesman for Poland’s Border Guard, as the number of migrants has increased over the past two months, border police have also encountered more hostile conduct.
“The groups are acting more violently. Polish patrols were the target of numerous attacks.
According to Border Guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska, 17 vehicles have been damaged this year, with 13 of the incidents occurring in June alone.
The movement of Wagner gang mercenaries to Belarus, according to Stanislaw Zaryn, deputy minister of special services, prompted an increase in police presence at the border.
The decision by President Vladimir Putin to permit mercenary troops to enter Belarus has increased concerns among NATO’s eastern command that the mercenaries’ presence could lead to more instability in the area.
According to Deputy Minister of Special Services Stanislaw Zaryn, “It is still a matter of analysis and hypothesis whether the Wagner group will engage in destabilizing Poland and whether it will be active in coordinating the migration route.”
He believes the mercenaries aren’t heading to Belarus to take care of themselves, but rather to carry out a task that could be directed towards Poland or other nations like Lithuania or Ukraine.
