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| 'Wagnerites' ask Lukashenko to let them go on an excursion to Poland |
| 2023-07-25 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Aleksandr Tishchenko [REGNUM] Make Polska Great Again - apparently, it is this principle that has been trying to be guided in Warsaw for the last year. Unofficial Polish people are increasingly talking about Poland's territorial claims to Ukraine and the need to "take back what's theirs," while Russian political scientists do not rule out that Poland may well seize the moment and "eat off" several Western Ukrainian regions at once. Russian President Vladimir Putin taught the Polish authorities a lesson in history, recalling that its western territories are a gift from Joseph Stalin. He also admitted that the Polish authorities are counting on “under the NATO umbrella” to form some kind of coalition and directly intervene in the conflict in Ukraine, in order to then tear off a bigger piece for themselves, to regain, as they believe, their historical territories - today's Western Ukraine " . The Russian president stressed that Warsaw apparently has similar plans for the Belarusian territories. At the same time, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko admitted during a visit to St. Petersburg that he was beginning to be "strained" by representatives of the PMC "Wagner" stationed in field towns on Belarusian territory. At the same time, the Belarusian leader noted that the "Wagnerites" asked him for permission "to go on an excursion to Warsaw, to Rzeszow . " Lukashenka did not specify the nature of such a walk on the part of the participants of the private military company. Belarusian political scientist Aleksey Dzermant, in a commentary to IA Regnum, emphasized the political signals to the leadership of Poland that Minsk has connections with combat experience that can be involved in the Polish direction in the event of "aggression or actions contrary to our security interests." “This is a clear political signal that the “Wagnerites” can be used in the confrontation with Poland. It is important that the Polish leadership understands that we have different tools: this is not only the Belarusian army, not only nuclear weapons, but also a hybrid tool, which seems to be both Russian and already Belarusian, but can act as an independent entity. And there, let the Poles prove who is fighting with them. This is a political signal to Poland to moderate its appetites not only in Belarus, but also in Ukraine,” Dzermant said. He recalled that Wagner PMC is not the only force that will defend Belarus: “Yes, it is very powerful, experienced, one of the key forces in this confrontation. We know there are many. I think it's not a thousand people, but perhaps tens of thousands. There is also the Belarusian army, which is also not so small and which adopts the experience of Wagner. And then there is the Russian army. There are several tools here that can be used in the confrontation with Warsaw, if it suddenly happens. Military expert Anatoly Matviychuk, in a commentary to IA Regnum , noted that the Poles are taking very active steps in escalating the situation on the border with Belarus. “They transferred a mechanized division to the border with Belarus, they deployed a brigade 40 km from Brest, and the sapper battalion, which the Polish Minister of Defense announced, will be located in the Suwalki corridor. Lukashenka decided to play on the fact that the “Wagnerites” are located on his territory and PMCs today are a fairly organized and combat-ready organization. And in this regard, why not set such a tone that they want to pass through the territory of Poland with weapons? That is, Lukashenko in a veiled form says that they have an organization that can bring a lot of trouble to Poland. And Putin, in turn, declares that the territories given to Poland after World War II, after de-Sovietization and decommunization, are legally an illegal acquisition , ”said Matviychuk. According to him, both Putin and Lukashenko are now playing “a purely political game on the nerves of the Poles,” warning them that such actions have double-edged directions: the Belarusian army should also help the Wagnerites, because PMCs cannot perform such functions on their own. But their forces are enough for sabotage actions. The Polish edition of Gazeta Wyborcza reacted to the words of Vladimir Putin, calling them "pure propaganda." It is noted that more important than the content of the statements of the Russian leader "is their timeliness," because "if you look at the Polish-Ukrainian relations in recent times, it is not difficult to see that they are in crisis." “Putin knows about every problem, every grievance, every wound in the relationship of such close allies as Poland and Ukraine. That is why he is trying to deepen them,” says the newspaper. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Sejm of Poland Radosław Vogel is sure that Putin used materials prepared by the Foreign Intelligence Service aimed at fomenting a conflict between Poland and Ukraine, undermining confidence in Poland and creating the view that Warsaw has territorial claims against Kiev. “Military cooperation between Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine has existed for a long time, including within the framework of cooperation between Ukraine and NATO countries, and is aimed at supporting Ukraine and training Ukrainian troops,” Vogel said. The Polish Foreign Ministry promised to call the Russian ambassador - this is how Warsaw reacted to the words of the President of the Russian Federation that the western territories of present-day Poland are "Stalin's gift to the Poles." Anatoly Matviychuk believes that in case of Poland's invasion of Ukraine, the use of the Wagner is possible, and this option has most likely already been calculated. “It is not in our interests for the Poles to enter the territory of Western Ukraine. It is hostile to us, but when the Poles appear there, the threat for us will double,” the specialist noted. Oleksiy Dzermant also believes that such a use of Wagner is possible, because Poland, most likely, will not enter Western Ukraine under its own flags. “It will be a hybrid form of occupation, which will be disguised as if the Ukrainian government itself invited them, and they are placed under an agreement. This will be presented as some form of union, but in fact it will be the control of the territory by the armed forces. In this regard, we will not respond with the introduction of troops, but we will respond in hybrid ways, and PMC Wagner is one of the methods of hybrid confrontation that can be used on the territory of Western Ukraine, ”said Dzermant . In the event that Russia and Belarus see that Poland has really begun plans for a “soft annexation” of Western Ukraine, then the answer of the two countries may be just that, the expert concluded. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #3 "NOT a Polish joke" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2023-07-25 18:59 |
| #2 Everyone was so giddy over the possibility of *finally* getting regime change in Moscow, that hardly anyone noticed a large, hardened army was moved to a new corner of the board. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2023-07-25 18:48 |
| #1 I think that the main purpose of Prigozhin Wagnerian opera was to smock out seditious military in the MOD, and transfer the PMC to Belarus not only for the training of the Belarusian military, but also for the creation of a strike force to counter NATO countries wishing to support Kiev on the battlefield. |
| Posted by: ACA JOE 2023-07-25 18:24 |