Tensions between Poland and Belarus have heightened following Belarus’ accusation that a Polish helicopter breached its border on Friday.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry reported that it had summoned a Polish diplomat to request an investigation after its military claimed to have detected a Polish Mi-24 military helicopter flying at an extremely low altitude, 1,200 meters within its territory, before turning back, as per Reuters. Poland, however, vigorously denied that any of its helicopters had crossed into Belarusian airspace.
This incident unfolded against the backdrop of deteriorating relations between the two nations in recent weeks. Poland had expressed concerns about the presence of the paramilitary Wagner Group in Belarus. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a prominent ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Ukraine conflict, had brokered a peace agreement with the Wagner Group in June after their attempted rebellion against Moscow’s military leadership. This accord permitted the Wagner Group to relocate to Belarus to avoid prosecution in Russia.
Poland was apprehensive that the Wagner Group might seek to seize control of the Suwałki Gap, a small but crucial corridor connecting Poland to the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Such a takeover would isolate these nations from the rest of Europe, potentially allowing Russia to exert greater influence over them and prompting a response from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, of which Poland is a member.
In response to the latest border incident, Belarus’ Foreign Ministry issued a statement reported by Reuters, demanding “appropriate explanations from the Polish side and a thorough investigation into the incident.”
Polish Lieutenant Colonel Jacek Goryszewski, however, firmly refuted the alleged incursion, stating, “I do not confirm this information. None of the Polish helicopters crossed the border into Belarus. Such border crossing could not have happened & did not happen. Our radar systems are unequivocal,” according to Reuters.
Newsweek reached out to the foreign affairs ministries of both Poland and Belarus via email for comment.
Meanwhile, Lukashenko dismissed Poland’s concerns about the Wagner Group, which had fought alongside Russia in Ukraine and whose leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had died in a plane crash the previous month. According to Belarusian news outlet BelTA, Lukashenko referred to Polish calls for the removal of the Wagner Group from Belarus as “unreasonable and foolish.”
“The answer is straightforward: there should not be a single foreign serviceman in the Baltic States, neither in Poland, Lithuania, nor in other countries. Then we can also raise concerns about the presence of servicemen from other nations here,” Lukashenko remarked.
In response to the Wagner Group’s relocation to Belarus, Poland had deployed thousands of troops near their shared border.
Putin, without substantiation, asserted that Poland seemed to have ambitions of seizing “historic lands” and taking “a substantial portion of Ukraine,” despite Russia launching an invasion of Ukraine the previous February. He also claimed that Polish leaders harbored aspirations for Belarusian territory.
Poland and Belarus found themselves on opposing sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which had dominated European politics since its inception. Poland had emerged as one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters, whereas Belarus had remained one of Russia’s few European allies during the war.