Putin tells Poland any aggression against Belarus is attack on Russia
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[July 22, 2023]
MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin on Friday
accused NATO member Poland of having territorial ambitions in the former
Soviet Union, and said any aggression against Russia's neighbour and
close ally Belarus would be considered an attack on Russia.
Moscow would react to any aggression against Belarus, which forms a
loose "Union State" with Russia, "with all the means at our disposal",
Putin told a meeting of his Security Council in televised remarks.
Warsaw's Security Committee decided on Wednesday to move military units
to eastern Poland after members of the Russian Wagner mercenary force
arrived in Belarus, the state-run news agency PAP quoted its secretary
as saying on Friday.
Poland denies any territorial ambitions in Belarus.
In his remarks Putin had also stated that the western part of Poland was
a gift from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to the country and that Russia
would remind Poles about it.
In apparent reference to that, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki
tweeted on Friday evening that "Stalin was a war criminal, guilty of the
death of hundreds of thousands of Poles. Historical truth is not
debatable."
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"The ambassador of the Russian Federation will be summoned to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs", he said.
On Thursday, Belarus said Wagner mercenaries had started to train
Belarusian special forces at a military range just a few miles from the
Polish border.
RUSSIA STAGING TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Russia has in recent weeks begun stationing tactical nuclear weapons in
Belarus for the first time. The Kremlin said Putin would meet Belarusian
President Alexander Lukashenko, with whom he speaks regularly, in Russia
on Sunday.
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![](../images/072223PIX/news_a40.jpg)
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs
a meeting at the Novatek-Murmansk's Offshore Superfacility
Construction Center in the village of Belokamenka, Murmansk region,
Russia July 20, 2023. Sputnik/Ramil Sitdikov/Kremlin via
REUTERS/file photo
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German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Friday that Germany
and NATO were prepared to support Poland in defending the military
alliance's eastern flank.
Putin said there were press reports of plans for a Polish-Lithuanian
unit to be used for operations in western Ukraine - parts of which
in the past belonged to Poland - and ultimately to occupy territory
there.
"It is well known that they also dream of the Belarusian lands," he
said, also without providing any evidence.
On Wednesday, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video
welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no
further part for now in the war in Ukraine but ordering them to
gather strength for Wagner's operations in Africa while they trained
the Belarusian army.
Prigozhin says Wagner, which led the conquest of the Ukrainian city
of Bakhmut, is Russia's most effective fighting force. But his
frequent clashes with the Moscow defence establishment led him to
stage an armed mutiny four weeks ago.
The insurrection ended with an agreement that Wagner fighters - many
recruited from prison - could move to Belarus if they wished.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Kevin Liffey;Editing by William
Maclean and Grant McCool)
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