MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused NATO member Poland of getting territorial ambitions within the former Soviet Union, and mentioned any aggression in opposition to Russia’s neighbor and shut ally Belarus can be thought of an assault on Russia.
Moscow would react to any aggression in opposition to Belarus, which varieties a unfastened “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 navy items to japanese Poland after members of the Russian Wagner mercenary pressure 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 mentioned.
On Thursday, Belarus mentioned Wagner mercenaries had began to coach Belarusian particular forces at a navy vary only a few miles from the Polish border.
Russia staging tactical nuclear weapons
Russia has in current weeks begun stationing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus for the primary time. The Kremlin mentioned Putin would meet Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, with whom he speaks commonly, in Russia on Sunday.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius mentioned on Friday that Germany and NATO had been ready to help Poland in defending the navy alliance’s japanese flank.
Putin mentioned there have been press reviews of plans for a Polish-Lithuanian unit for use for operations in western Ukraine — elements of which previously belonged to Poland — and in the end to occupy territory there.
“It is well known that they also dream of the Belarusian lands,” he mentioned, 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 struggle in Ukraine however ordering them to collect power for Wagner’s operations in Africa whereas they educated the Belarusian military.
Prigozhin says Wagner, which led the conquest of the Ukrainian metropolis of Bakhmut, is Russia’s only preventing pressure. But his frequent clashes with the Moscow protection 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 — might transfer to Belarus in the event that they wished. —Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
