U.S. ambassador to U.N.: any attacks by Wagner Group will be seen as attacks by Russia

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield was asked by Fakty TVN reporter Marcin Wrona at a press briefing on Monday about the potential threat to Poland posed by the Wagner Group mercenaries stationed in Belarus.

Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, joked at a meeting with him on July 23 that some of the fighters were keen to press into Poland and "go on a trip to Warsaw and Rzeszów".

"We have raised our concerns about the Wagner Group long before they got in the press for actually attacking their own government," Thomas-Greenfield replied.

"We have seen their malign efforts on the continent of Africa, so we certainly worry that this group, at the behest of the Russian government, because they do not work independently of the Russian government, is a threat to all of us and we have to ensure that the message is clear - that any attacks by the Wagner Group will be seen as an attack by the Russian government," the U.S. ambassador stressed.

Marcin Wrona also asked ambassador Thomas-Greenfield about the tense situation in the Black Sea. On July 25, Britain's U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward said the UK had information that "the Russian military may expand their targeting of Ukrainian grain facilities further, to include attacks against civilian shipping in the Black Sea". Shortly after, the U.S. ambassador to the OSCE Michael Carpenter also spoke about such potential danger.

"Russia has said itself directly that they may attack civilian ships using the Black Sea. This is not the action that we would expect again of a permanent member of the Security Council," Thomas-Greenfield said.

"They’re going against all norms, all the values of the UN Charter, and those actions should be condemned roundly by everyone."

For the month of August, the United States will serve as President of the United Nations Security Council, a position that rotates every month among the 15 Council members.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield is an American diplomat who is the United States ambassador to the United Nations under President Joe Biden.

A group of a hundred soldiers from the Russian Wagner group have moved closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno near the Polish border, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Saturday (July 29).

Poland, a former Warsaw Pact member which has been a full member of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance since 1999, has been concerned about the possible spillover of war on to its territory ever since Russian invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Earlier this month, Poland began moving more than 1,000 troops to the east of the country amid rising concerns that the presence of Wagner fighters in Belarus could lead to increased tension on its border.

"The situation is getting increasingly dangerous ... Most likely they (the Wagner personnel) will be disguised as the Belarusian border guard and help illegal migrants get to the Polish territory (and) destabilise Poland," Morawiecki said at a press conference in Gliwice, western Poland.

"They will most likely try to enter Poland pretending to be illegal migrants and this poses additional threats," Morawiecki said.

However he did not give the source of his information on the Wagner movements, and Anton Motolko, founder of the Belarusian opposition Hajun project which monitors military activity in the country, told Reuters his group had not seen any evidence of the Wagner group moving closer to Grodno.

The city has a potentially significant position given it is near the Suwałki Gap, a strategic strip of land along the Polish-Lithuanian border, which divides Belarus, Russia's ally, from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

Earlier in July, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video 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 - where they are involved in a number of conflicts - while they train the Belarusian army.

The following day, some Wagner fighters arrived at the training ground of the 38th airborne assault brigade outside the city of Brest, just a few miles from the Polish border.

Wagner's move to Belarus was part of a deal that ended the group's mutiny attempt in June, when they took control of a Russian military headquarters, marched on Moscow and threatened to tip Russia into civil war, President Vladimir Putin has said.