{"id":74378,"date":"2023-08-02T18:48:38","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T18:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/08\/02\/nato-nations-beef-up-security-due-to-wagner-fighters-in-belarus\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:35:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:35:41","slug":"nato-nations-beef-up-security-due-to-wagner-fighters-in-belarus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2023\/08\/02\/nato-nations-beef-up-security-due-to-wagner-fighters-in-belarus\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO nations beef up security due to Wagner fighters in Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NATO allies located along the alliance\u2019s eastern front are growing increasingly worried about the presence of Russia-linked Wagner group mercenaries in Belarus, where some have been deployed since a short-lived mutiny in Russia in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Poland, Lithuania and Latvia \u2014 members of NATO and the European Union which border Belarus \u2014 had already been on alert since large numbers of migrants and refugees began arriving at their borders from Belarus two years ago. They have accused Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Russia, of opening the migration route in an act of \u201chybrid warfare\u201d aimed at creating instability in the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now concerns have grown further since the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/wagner-group-mercenaries-belarus-e226188f152e3eace149f3639863df54\" target=\"_blank\">Wagner troops<\/a>&nbsp;began arriving in Belarus after their&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-revolt-putin-prigozhin-zelenskyy-lukashenko-biden-4ffe3c4d1f4f10cc8496d4a8bdf4103f\" target=\"_blank\">short-lived mutiny<\/a>&nbsp;in Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Poland\u2019s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said on the weekend that some&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/poland-belarus-wagner-russia-border-suwalki-mercenaries-646ecf36cd57540fa8423f5a32320f53\" target=\"_blank\">100 Wagner fighters<\/a>&nbsp;in Belarus had approached the border with Poland, specifically a strategically sensitive area known as the Suwalki Gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNow the situation becomes even more dangerous,\u201d Morawiecki told reporters. \u201cThis is certainly a step towards a further hybrid attack on Polish territory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An incident Tuesday added further to the concerns, with two Belarusian helicopters entering Polish air space at low altitude while carrying out exercises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Poland\u2019s Ministry of Defense reported that incident to NATO, which said Wednesday that it is monitoring the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNATO is closely tracking the situation along its eastern borders, including yesterday\u2019s incident where two Belarussian military helicopters briefly crossed into Polish airspace at low altitude,\u201d a NATO official said on customary condition of anonymity. \u201cWe are in close contact with the Polish authorities on this matter, and we will continue to do what is necessary to ensure all Alliance territory remains secure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Poland, Lithuania and Latvia say they have been deploying more troops and equipment to their borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Guntis Pujats, head of Latvia\u2019s State Border Guard, told Latvian media Wednesday that security risks in the immediate vicinity of the Belarus border have been high since Minsk started using migrants as a tool of \u201chybrid warfare\u201d but have grown with the arrival of the Wagner group. He said border guards have started training a special task force in response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lithuania\u2019s President Gitanas Nauseda said this week that it would be tempting for the Wagner group to use its presence near the Lithuanian border \u201cfor various provocations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo I think the threat is serious,\u201d Nauseda said during a visit Monday to a site on the border with Belarus where seven Lithuanian officers were murdered by Soviet paratroopers 32 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Others have suggested that one shouldn\u2019t overestimate the capabilities of the armed group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Laurynas Kasciunas, chairman of the Seimas National Security and Defense Committee, told reporters that Wagner mercenaries in Belarus with their current combat power do not pose a conventional military threat. Whether they pose a great threat in the future, he said, \u201cwill depend on further scenarios, how they are armed and their orders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Poland, some critics of the government believe that it is overstating the threat in order to present itself as tough on security ahead of parliamentary elections this fall. Opposition leader Donald Tusk accused the ruling party of using Wagner to stoke fear ahead of the elections, something the party has denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some Poles also faulted the authorities for refusing to initially acknowledge that the Belarusian helicopters had entered Poland\u2019s airspace on Tuesday. At first, the military insisted that the Belarusian aircraft had not entered Poland. But after local residents posted photos on social media of aircraft with Belarusian insignia several kilometers from the border inside Poland, the Defense Ministry put out a statement saying it was true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said earlier this week the United States views the Wagner group \u2014 whose forces have fought in Ukraine and also operated in Africa \u2014 as a threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe have seen their malign efforts on the continent of Africa. So we certainly worry that this group, at the behest of the Russian government \u2014 because they do not work independently of the Russian government \u2014 is a threat to all of us,\u201d Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Monday. \u201cAnd we have to ensure that the message is clear that any attacks by the Wagner Group will be seen as an attack by the Russian government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Lorne Cook in Brussels, Jari Tanner in Helsinki, Finland, and Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania, contributed.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Poland\u2019s prime minister said on the weekend that some 100 Wagner fighters in Belarus had approached the border with Poland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":107247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3013],"class_list":["post-74378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"7SYZDZNUEFFH7PECMDNCLST4H4","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2023\/08\/02\/nato-nations-beef-up-security-due-to-wagner-fighters-in-belarus\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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