Poland and the three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, will completely close their borders with Belarus if a “critical incident” involving mercenaries from the Wagner Group, the Polish Minister of the Interior Mariusz Kaminski said to Reuters on Monday, August 28th.
According to Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite, a complete border closure could happen under two circumstances:
First of all, an armed incident at the border of one of the countries. The incident would need to pose serious threat to national security. The other criterion is a mass breakthrough of migrants through the border of one of the states.
The four countries had gathered in Warsaw, Poland, to discuss a joint response in case Belarusian behaviour begins to threaten the national security of any of the countries.
Latvia is the latest country to strengthen the protection of its borders with Belarus due to a “rapidly increasing hybrid threat.” Previously, Poland announced that it would be moving additional troops to the border “to scare away the aggressor so that it does not dare to attack us.”
Nations on the eastern flank of NATO that are dealing with a rising influx of illegal migrants accuse Belarus of organising the flow. Lithuania and Poland have both built barriers on their border with Belarus to stem the flow of migrants, and Latvia has also begun constructing a fence.
The allied countries are also worried about the thousands of Russian soldiers from the mercenary Wagner group currently stationed in Belarus. While the eastern members of NATO fear an attack by Russia or Belarus, officials in Moscow and Minsk believe the opposite to be true, even going as far as suggesting that Poland intends on annexing western regions of Ukraine.
The Lithuanian government has already temporarily closed two out of six Belarus border crossings, mainly used by passenger vehicles and empty cargo trucks. Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė noted that closing more than two border crossings with Belarus without coordination with neighbouring countries could have negative consequences for them. Therefore, if such a decision is considered, it’s important to act in a coordinated manner.
Already before Monday’s meeting, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said the four countries are only making things worse for their own people:
I don’t really understand Lithuania and Latvia. They are probably getting ahead of things … they want to show off. But it will backfire on them.
The four countries issued a joint statement where they demanded that Lukashenko remove the Wagner group from his country, and also demanded that migrants in the border area be removed and returned to their home countries.
