Could Wagner fighters pose as migrants to enter EU? Polish PM warns of potential ‘hybrid attack’

Speaking at a press conference in Poland on Saturday, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned against a potential “hybrid attack on Polish territory” by Wagner fighters who may pose as illegal migrants, stressing some of the mercenaries in Belarus had moved close to Grodno.

The Belarusian border city is located near the Suwalki gap – Poland’s 95 km border with fellow EU state Lithuania, which separates Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

The Wagner mercenaries will probably pose as Belarusian border guards to help illegal immigrants cross into the EU or even pretend to be migrants themselves to enter the bloc, Morawiecki claimed, according to Polish public broadcaster TVP.

An unknown number of Wagner members recently moved from Russia to Belarus as part of an agreement to end the group’s 24-hour rebellion against Moscow.

Tensions erupted in Russia last month as troops loyal to Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin advanced hundreds of miles toward the capital only for him to suddenly end the uprising and agree to go into exile with all related criminal charges against him and his fighters dropped.

Before the short-lived mutiny, the mercenaries had formed the main force fighting for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Earlier this month, Ukraine’s border guard service said it was assessing how many of the members had crossed into Belarus.

On Saturday, Volodymyr Zelensky’s official social media channels said the president had visited front-line troops in the devastated Bakhmut area and met with military commanders.