Putin accuses Poland of planning Belarus attack, warns Russia would respond – National | 24CA News
President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused NATO member Poland of getting territorial ambitions within the former Soviet Union, and stated any aggression towards Russia’s neighbour and shut ally Belarus can be thought-about an assault on Russia.
Moscow would react to any aggression towards Belarus, which kinds a free “Union State” with Russia, “with all the means at our disposal”, Putin advised a gathering of his Security Council in televised remarks.
Warsaw’s Security Committee selected Wednesday to maneuver army models to japanese Poland after members of the Russian Wagner mercenary power arrived in Belarus, the state-run news company PAP quoted its secretary as saying on Friday.
Poland denies any territorial ambitions in Belarus.
In his remarks Putin had additionally acknowledged that the western a part of Poland was a present from Soviet chief Joseph Stalin to the nation and that Russia would remind Poles about it.
In obvious reference to that, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki tweeted on Friday night that “Stalin was a war criminal, guilty of the death of hundreds of thousands of Poles. Historical truth is not debatable.”
“The ambassador of the Russian Federation will be summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”, he stated.
On Thursday, Belarus stated Wagner mercenaries had began to prepare Belarusian particular forces at a army vary only a few miles from the Polish border.
Belarus a key weapons station for Russia
Russia has in current weeks begun stationing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus for the primary time. The Kremlin stated Putin would meet Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, with whom he speaks repeatedly, in Russia on Sunday.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius stated on Friday that Germany and NATO had been ready to help Poland in defending the army alliance’s japanese flank.
Putin stated there have been press experiences of plans for a Polish-Lithuanian unit for use for operations in western Ukraine – components of which up to now belonged to Poland – and finally to occupy territory there.
“It is well known that they also dream of the Belarusian lands,” he stated, additionally with out offering any proof.
On Wednesday, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was proven in a video welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they’d take no additional half for now within the conflict in Ukraine however ordering them to collect energy for Wagner’s operations in Africa whereas they skilled the Belarusian military.
Prigozhin says Wagner, which led the conquest of the Ukrainian metropolis of Bakhmut, is Russia’s handiest combating power. But his frequent clashes with the Moscow defence institution led him to stage an armed mutiny 4 weeks in the past.
The riot ended with an settlement that Wagner fighters – many recruited from jail – may transfer to Belarus in the event that they wished.
