After Poland, Latvia also decided to increase its military presence on the Belarusian border. Riga’s defense minister has ordered the army to help protect the Baltic country’s border after irregular migrants attempted to cross 96 times in 24 hours. Border Guard agents were also recalled from the holidays to assist with patrolling. Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins described the move as “proactive”. “We are just increasing our presence and sending a clear signal both to our society and to the Belarusian authorities: this is no joke,” he said.
The country, which shares a 172-kilometer border with Belarus, a close ally of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, accuses its neighbor of deliberately bringing migrants to Europe to its border. Border Guards said in a statement that Latvia has “information about a possible increase in hybrid threats”. EU and NATO members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which share a border with Belarus, accuse Minsk of pushing irregular migrants into Europe to destabilize the region and have recently also built border walls for it.
The three countries are increasingly concerned since Yevgeny Prigozhin and hundreds of Russian Wagner mercenaries, who took part in the war in Ukraine and the failed insurgency against Moscow, arrived in Belarus last month. The fighters arrived at the invitation of President Alexander Lukashenko to escape arrest in Russia, and some are also training regiments of the Belarusian army. According to the Ukrainian Border Guard Service, there are currently as many as 5,000 mercenaries in the former Soviet country. It is feared that they may carry out hybrid attacks. Yesterday (Wednesday 16 August) Riga decided to temporarily close two of its six checkpoints with Belarus due to concerns about the Wagner group.
In recent months, Poland has seen an increase in the number of immigrants trying to cross the border, mostly from the Middle East and Africa. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also argued last month that Wagner fighters could disguise themselves as immigrants and try to enter the EU. Therefore, Poland decided to send up to 10,000 additional soldiers to the border with Belarus to support the Border Guard. In 2021 Latvia, Poland and Lithuania faced an immigration crisis as thousands of people, most from the Middle East and Africa, were turned away trying to cross borders from Belarus.
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
