Poland moves military formations to east as Wagner Group practices in Belarus. Putin warns against aggression on Minsk

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video on Wednesday welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no further part in the Ukraine war for now but ordering them to gather their strength for Africa while they trained the Belarusian army.

Prigozhin says Wagner, which led the grinding 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, would either move to Belarus, sign up with the Russian army or return to their homes.

On Thursday, the Belarusian defence ministry said Wagner mercenaries had started to train Belarusian special forces at a military range just a few miles from the border with NATO-member Poland.

"Training or joint exercises of the Belarusian army and the Wagner Group is undoubtedly a provocation," secretary of the Committee of the Council of Ministers for National Security and Defense Affairs Zbigniew Hoffmann told Polish Press Agency (PAP) on Friday.

"The Committee analysed possible threats, such as the dislocation of Wagner Group units. Therefore, the Minister of National Defense, chairman of the Committee, Mariusz Błaszczak, decided to move our military formations from the west to the east of Poland," Hoffmann added.

People living near Poland's border with Belarus said on Thursday they could hear shooting and helicopters after Russia's Wagner Group arrived to train Belarusian special forces, compounding their fears the Ukraine war would reach them.

Defense Minister Błaszczak said earlier this month that Poland began moving over 1,000 troops to the east of the country.

Also at the beginning of July Poland said it would send 500 police to shore up security at the border with Belarus.

Moscow would react to any aggression against Belarus, which forms a loose "Union State" with Russia, "with all the means at our disposal", Russia's President Vladimir Putin told a meeting of his Security Council in televised remarks.

Putin adde 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.

"But as far as Belarus is concerned, it is part of the Union State (with Russia); unleashing aggression against Belarus will mean aggression against the Russian Federation," Putin said. "We will respond to this with all the means at our disposal."

Poland denies any territorial ambitions in Belarus.

Putin also said Poland had been abandoned by its Western allies in 1939 and ultimately lost its independence and statehood "which were restored in large part thanks to the Soviet Union".

"It was thanks to the Soviet Union, thanks to steps taken by Stalin, Poland got substantial territories in the West - German land. This is a fact. Western Polish territories are Stalin's gift to Poland. Have our friends in Warsaw forgotten about it? We'll give them a reminder," he added.

Germany and NATO are prepared to support Poland in defending its eastern flank, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said in Prague on Friday.

"Where the Polish partners need support, they will receive it," Pistorius said at a press conference with his Czech counterpart in Prague. "They are NATO partners and reliable NATO allies, so we can confidently say that we are prepared."