Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday taunted Poland over the presence of Russian Wagner mercenaries near the NATO country's border, saying Warsaw should thank him for keeping them in check.

State news agency Belta quoted him on Tuesday as saying that the Poles “should pray that we’re holding onto (the Wagner fighters) and providing for them. Otherwise, without us, they would have seeped through and smashed up Rzeszow and Warsaw in no small way. So they shouldn’t reproach me, they should say thank you.”

  • yata@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Wagner poses a risk to Putin, and Putin is a little coward, so they have been isolated to a camp in Belarus as a sort of exile instead of him attempting a complete confrontation with them.

    Putin and Lukashenko finds a use for this (for them) unfortunate situation by using them as a threat to Poland, even though Wagner most likely plays no part at all in all of this. Helps saving the face of Putin and Lukashenko by even suggesting that this is something that Wagner would be even remotely interested in doing for them, while at the same time taunting Poland.