President Vladimir Putin on Friday charged NATO member Poland with having territorial ambitions within the former Soviet Union and warned any aggression in opposition to Russia’s shut ally Belarus can be thought-about an assault on Russia.
Moscow would react to any aggression in opposition to Belarus, which varieties a free “Union State” with Russia, “with all the means at our disposal,” Putin instructed a gathering of his Security Council in televised remarks.
“Belarus is part of the Union State (of Russia and Belarus). And unleashing aggression against Belarus would mean aggression against the Russian Federation. We will respond to this with all means at our disposal,” Putin instructed a gathering of the National Security Council on Friday.
Poland stated earlier on Friday that it supposed to maneuver an as-of-yet-unknown variety of its personal troopers additional east due to the presence of Russian Wagner mercenaries in neighboring Belarus.
On Wednesday, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was proven in a video welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they might take no additional half for now within the battle in Ukraine however ordering them to collect power for Wagner’s operations in Africa whereas they skilled the Belarusian military.
Prigozhin says Wagner, which led the conquest of the Ukrainian metropolis of Bakhmut, is Russia’s handiest preventing pressure. But his frequent clashes with the Moscow protection institution led him to stage an armed mutiny 4 weeks in the past.
The rebellion ended with an settlement that Wagner fighters – many recruited from jail – may transfer to Belarus in the event that they wished.
On Thursday, Minsk stated Wagner mercenaries had began to coach Belarusian particular forces at a navy vary just some miles from the Polish border.
In the midst of the battle he launched in opposition to Ukraine, Putin additionally accused Poland of meaning to occupy western Ukraine.
There have been stories in regards to the allegedly deliberate creation of a Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian navy unit, he stated. The unit can be deployed in Ukraine “allegedly to ensure the security of what is now western Ukraine,” Putin asserted. “But basically, if you call a spade a spade, it is about the subsequent occupation of these territories.”
“It is well known that they also dream of the Belarusian lands,” he stated.
“But as far as Belarus is concerned, it is part of the Union State; unleashing aggression against Belarus will mean aggression against the Russian Federation,” Putin stated. “We will respond to this with all the means at our disposal.”
Poland denies any territorial ambitions in Belarus.
Russia has in latest weeks begun stationing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus for the primary time. The Kremlin stated Putin would meet Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, with whom he speaks frequently, in Russia on Sunday.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius stated on Friday that Germany and NATO have been ready to help Poland in defending the alliance’s jap flank.
“The pathetic bore from the Kremlin is once again repeating lies about Poland and also trying to falsify the truth about the war against Ukraine,” Poland’s deputy minister coordinator of intelligence providers Stanislaw Zaryn instructed state-owned PAP news company.
“Vladimir Putin is also using historical revisionism again to spread false accusations against Poland.”
Putin additionally said that Poland mustn’t overlook that the acquire of former German territories within the west after World War II was a “gift from Stalin.”
After World War II the Allied powers and the Soviet Union met at key conferences and selected the postwar map of Europe. Poland was awarded some land in its west that had been German for tons of of years, however the Soviet Union took over areas in Poland’s east that had been Polish for a very long time.
“Vladimir Putin is once again using historical revisionism to spread false accusations against the Republic of Poland,” stated Zaryn, on Twitter.
Higher-ranking Polish officers have to this point not responded to Putin’s feedback.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
