John Kirby: U.S. is not aware of any specific threat posed to Poland by Wagner Group

The Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House John Kirby told a briefing that the United States was watching the situation closely. An unspecified number of Wagner fighters have begun training the Belarus national army, prompting Poland to start moving more than 1,000 troops closer to the border.

"We’re not in a position to give you a nose count on Wagner troops and where they are. We believe that certainly some have moved on down to Africa to try to continue to foment instability and insecurity there," Kirby said.

"We believe that some are probably still in Ukraine although they don’t want to appear to have had any kind of impact in the fighting there. And certainly we believe that some have moved into Belarus. I have seen all the press reports about them moving up towards the border and all that kind of things," he added.

"We’re not aware of any specific threat posed by Wagner to Poland or to any of our NATO allies and we’re watching that obviously closely. Of course we’re committed to Article 5 and, as the president said, to defending every inch of NATO territory. But again – no indication that Wagner poses any threat to the Alliance," White House national security spokesman reassured.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday taunted Poland over the presence of Russian Wagner mercenaries near the NATO country's border, saying Warsaw should thank him for keeping them in check.

An unspecified number of the Wagner fighters who staged a brief mutiny in Russia in June have since moved to Belarus and have begun training Lukashenko's army, prompting Poland to start moving more than 1,000 of its own troops closer to the border.

Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, joked at a meeting with him last month that some of the fighters were keen to press into Poland and "go on a trip to Warsaw and Rzeszów".

State news agency Belta quoted him on Tuesday as saying that the Poles "should pray that we're holding onto (the Wagner fighters) and providing for them. Otherwise, without us, they would have seeped through and smashed up Rzeszów and Warsaw in no small way. So they shouldn't reproach me, they should say thank you."

Rzeszów is a city in southeast Poland near the Ukrainian border.

On Saturday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said a group of 100 Wagner fighters had moved closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno near the Polish border, describing the situation as "increasingly dangerous".

Lukashenko, in his latest comments, appeared at first to deny that, then immediately to row back on the denial.

"Suddenly, I hear recently, Poland went berserk that allegedly some detachment is coming here, as many as 100 people," he said.

"No Wagner detachments of 100 people moved here. And if they did, then only to transfer their military experience to (Belarusian) brigades concentrated in Brest and Grodno."

Lukashenko has helped Putin in the Ukraine war by letting him launch it in part from Belarusian territory and allowing the use of his bases to train Russian troops.

He has not committed his own troops to the war but has said they will benefit from training by Wagner, which took part in some of the fiercest battles of the conflict.

"I have to teach my military, because an army that does not fight is half an army," he said.