Poland, Lithuania say they fear provocations from Russia, Belarus
Polish and Lithuanian leaders held an urgent meeting Thursday in a strategically sensitive area where their NATO nations border Belarus and the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, warning that they are bracing for provocations from Moscow and Minsk in the area.
The meeting came two days after two Belarusian helicopters flew briefly at low altitude into Polish air space, in what was viewed as a provocative move. Both nations on NATO's eastern flank have increased their border security following the arrival of thousands of Russia-linked Wagner group mercenaries just across their borders in Belarus after an aborted mutiny in Russia in June.
“Russia and Belarus are increasing the pressure on the borders, increasing the number of their provocations, and we must be aware that the number of these provocations will grow,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a news conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.
The Belarusian Foreign
Ministry denied that its country's helicopters entered Poland. Anatoly Glaz, press secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, said Thursday that the the charge d'affaires of Poland was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Minsk and told that Poland had come to a hasty conclusion.
“We call on the Polish side not to escalate the situation and not use it to militarize the border area,” Glaz said.
Local Polish residents on Tuesday posted photos on social media of helicopters with Belarusian insignia flying above.
Morawiecki and Nauseda met in Suwalki, a town in the Suwalki Gap, a sparsely populated stretch of land running 96 kilometers (60 miles) along the Polish-Lithuanian border. Also known as the Suwalki Corridor, the stretch of territory links the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with the rest of the NATO alliance. It separates Belarus, an ally of Russia, from Kaliningrad, a heavily militarized exclave of Russia located on the Baltic Sea which is separated from the Russian mainland.