Poland's defence ministry has agreed to send additional troops to the border with Belarus following a request from the Border Guard service, state-run news agency PAP reported on Tuesday.
Poland's Border Guard service asked the defence ministry to send an additional 1,000 troops to the border, the deputy interior minister said on Monday, amid an increase in attempts to illegally cross the frontier.
The head of the Border Guard, Tomasz Praga, said yesterday that this year 19,000 people had tried to cross the Polish-Belarusian border illegally, up from 16,000 last year, with a record number of attempts made in July - nearly 4,000.
"At the section of the Polish-Belarusian border we have an another wave of illegal migrants and an another stage of the hybrid war," he added.
MOD approves request
"Due to the dynamic situation on the Polish-Belarusian border, and the request by the Border Guard Commander for increased engagement in border protection, the Minister of National Defence ordered that the request be implemented and that additional soldiers be assigned to patrol the Polish-Belarusian border and to participate in Operation 'Safe Podlasie'" - the defence ministry was quoted as saying by PAP.
Poland has built a fence on the border with Belarus, equipped with electronic protection.
In recent weeks, soldiers from the Wagner mercenary group have appeared near the border, a development Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said was aimed at destabilising the situation on NATO's eastern flank.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters, PAP
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: Straż Graniczna