Tensions high on Nato’s border with Belarus as Wagner troops move closer

A senior Polish official referred to as for the “complete isolation” of Belarus as Warsaw deployed extra troops to the border in response to what it referred to as an airspace violation by Belarusian helicopters.

The transfer marks a pointy escalation in rigidity between Poland and its jap neighbor after the Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group that stage an aborted mutiny decamped to Belarus. Polish and Baltic authorities have more and more warned of a mounting safety risk, calling for measures to punish Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

“I am convinced that in cooperation with Lithuania and Latvia, we should work toward the complete isolation of Belarus in the future,” Deputy Inside Minister Maciej Wasik advised public tv Wednesday. “Lukashenko reacts only to force.”

Poland’s Overseas Ministry late Tuesday summoned Belarus’s ambassador and demanded a proof for the violation of its airspace “immediately and in detail.” Belarus’s Protection Ministry denied any its Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters crossed over Polish territory, in line with the state-owned Belta information company.

Poland’s head of the Nationwide Safety Bureau, Jacek Siewiera, stated the nation has ready quite a lot of eventualities on potential provocations that could possibly be carried out by the Wagner group mercenaries. “Underestimating the activities of Wagner group would be a mistake,” Siewiera advised Wprost newspaper.

US Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby stated Tuesday the US was unaware of particular threats posed by Wagner to Poland or some other NATO member.

However the situation has emerged as a political subject in Poland months forward of an election. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned on Saturday that a number of the fighters could try and infiltrate his nation alongside unlawful migrants, evoking Belarus’s choice in 2021 to ship migrants — largely from the Center East — into the European Union throughout the Polish and Baltic borders.

Poland’s border safety company stated the Wagner presence in Belarus had heightened the safety threat. The authority cited the gathering of bigger teams throwing stones and firing clean bullets at border personnel.

Taking cognizance of the matter Polish and Lithuanian leaders held an pressing assembly on Thursday in a strategically delicate space the place their NATO nations border Belarus and the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, warning that they’re bracing for provocations from Moscow and Minsk within the space.

Russia fines Wikipedia, Apple for spreading ‘false information’ about Ukraine battle

A Russian court docket on Thursday imposed fines on Apple and the host of Wikipedia for failing to take away materials deemed to be “false information” about Russia’s army actions in Ukraine.

A justice of the peace in a Justice of the Peace’s court docket, which handles administrative violations and low-level felony instances, fined the Wikimedia Basis 3 million rubles (USD 33,000) for retaining materials on Russian-language Wikipedia pages that violated a regulation in opposition to discrediting Russia’s army and spreading false details about the Ukraine battle, the Interfax information company reported.The identical justice discovered Apple responsible of failing to delete podcasts and apps with such info and fined the corporate 400,000 rubles (UAD 4,400).

Since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has enacted an array of measures to punish any criticism or questioning of the army marketing campaign.