Over the past months, Poland and the Baltic states have all closed their borders to most Russians seeking to cross, especially those traveling on tourist visas. National jurisdictions became formal and military weapons on the justification that too many Russians allegedly support their state’s invasion of eastern Ukraine.
In addition to that, Reuters reported on Sunday that Poland will send 500 police to shore up security at its border with Belarus to cope with rising numbers of migrants crossing as well as any potential threats after the Wagner group of mercenaries relocates to Belarus. The police force would join 5,000 border guards and 2,000 soldiers in securing the border, he said.
Poland has accused Belarus of artificially creating a migrant crisis on the border since 2021 by flying in people from the Middle East and Africa and attempting to push them across the frontier. The Polish Border Guard said on Sunday that 187 people tried to cross into Poland from Belarus illegally on Saturday, and numbers have been growing steadily in recent months, although they are well below levels seen in 2021.
A spokeswoman for Poland’s Border Guard said that Polish patrols at the border have also faced more aggressive behavior in the past two months as the number of migrants rose. “The groups are more aggressive. There have been many attacks on Polish patrols. Seventeen vehicles have been damaged this year, of which 13 in June alone“, Border Guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska said.
Deputy Minister Coordinator of Special Services Stanislaw Zaryn told Reuters the bigger security presence was also in response to the transfer of Wagner group mercenaries to Belarus. The decision to offer troops from the private military company the choice of relocating to Belarus has led to fears among eastern NATO members that their presence will cause greater instability in the region. “It is still a matter of analysis and hypotheses whether the Wagner group will engage in destabilizing Poland and will also be active in coordinating the migration route“, Zaryn told Reuters by phone.
Meanwhile, an agreement on extending the deployment of three German air defense units to Poland is being held up by fraught separate negotiations on the establishment of a maintenance hub in Poland for Leopard tanks damaged in Ukraine. German and Polish companies are involved in the negotiations on the maintenance hub, as well as both countries’ governments, and the main problems are seen on the companies’ side.
Together with three Patriot air defense units, some 300 German soldiers have been based in Zamosc, about 50 km (31 miles) from the Ukrainian border, since February to protect the southern town and its crucial railway link to Ukraine.
Poland has been on alert for a possible spillover of the war in neighboring Ukraine, especially since two people were killed in the region last November by what Warsaw concluded was a stray Ukrainian air defense missile. As a result, Berlin offered to deploy three of its Patriot units to Poland to help secure its air space.
Germany has also pledged to send Patriot units to Lithuania to protect the July 11-12 NATO summit in Vilnius.