Poland sends troops to border, Belarus denies helicopter rape

WARSAW, Aug 1 (Reuters) – Poland said on Tuesday it was sending troops to its eastern border after accusing Belarus, Russia’s closest ally, of violating its airspace with military helicopters.

The Belarusian military denied any such violation and accused NATO member Poland, one of Ukraine’s most ardent supporters in its conflict with Russia, of fabricating the accusation to justify its troop buildup.

Belarus’ leader Alexander Lukashenko had earlier taunted Poland over the presence of Russian Wagner mercenaries near their joint border.

Poland’s Defense Ministry said it was sending “additional forces and resources, including helicopter gunships.” He said that he had informed NATO of the border violation and that the Belarusian chargé d’affaires had been summoned to give an explanation.

The Polish military initially denied that a border violation had occurred, but later, after consultation, said that the intrusion took place “at a very low altitude, difficult to intercept by radar.”

The Belarusian Defense Ministry, writing on Telegram, said Warsaw had changed its mind about the incident “apparently after consulting their masters abroad.”

“This statement was not supported by data from Poland,” he said. “The Belarusian Ministry of Defense sees it as an ‘old wives’ tale’ and points out that the Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters did not violate the border.”

Residents of areas near the eastern Polish city of Bialowieza, close to the border with Belarus, shared accounts on social media of what they said were border violations before the defense minister issued his statement.

HISTORY OF ANMOSITY

Belarus has allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to use its territory as a launching pad for an invasion of Ukraine, but Lukashenko has not committed his own troops to the war.

The former Soviet state has a long history of animosity with Poland, as does Russia.

Last week Putin accused Poland of harboring territorial ambitions over Belarus and said he would regard any attack on his neighbor as an attack on himself.

Earlier on Tuesday, Lukashenko mockingly told Poland it should thank him for keeping Wagner’s mercenaries now stationed in Belarus in check after a failed mutiny against the Kremlin last month.

Since then, an unspecified number of Wagner fighters have moved to Belarus and started training Lukashenko’s army. Poland had already begun moving more than 1,000 of its own troops closer to the border.

Lukashenko joked in a meeting with Putin last month that some of the fighters were eager to push Poland and “go on a trip to Warsaw and Rzeszow.”

He was quoted by the state news agency Belta on Tuesday as saying the Poles “should pray that we hold on (to Wagner’s fighters) and provide for them. Otherwise, without us, they would have infiltrated and smashed Rzeszow and Warsaw in no time.” “. little way. So they shouldn’t reproach me, they should say thank you.”

Rzeszow is a city near the Ukrainian border.

On Saturday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said a group of 100 Wagner fighters had approached the Belarusian city of Grodno, near the Polish border, describing the situation as “increasingly dangerous”.

Reporting by Mark Trevelyan, Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska, Max Rodionov and Ron Popeski, Editing by Gareth Jones and Bill Berkrot

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