Poland is to deploy 2,000 extra troops to reinforce its eastern border with Belarus, Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik said on Wednesday.
Polish authorities recently warned of the threat of provocations from Belarus and the potential dangers posed by the Wagner mercenary group based there. Warsaw has also accused Minsk and Moscow of orchestrating a new influx of migrants into the European Union to destabilise the region.
Polish border guards had asked earlier this week for a thousand soldiers to be sent to deal with a record number of attempted crossings.
"It will not be a reinforcement of 1,000 soldiers, but of 2,000," Maciej Wasik told Polish news agency PAP on Wednesday, adding that the decision had been approved by the Polish Defence Minister.
The troops should be deployed within two weeks and will join the 2,000 soldiers already stationed near the border with Belarus, on the EU's eastern flank.
On Wednesday, Mr. Wasik added that all attempts to enter Poland illegally via this route were orchestrated by Belarusian services. "If we had real border guards on the other side, and not smugglers' services, these crossings would not exist at all," Wasik said.
According to the Polish border guards, 19,000 migrants have tried to enter Poland since the start of the year, compared with 16,000 for the whole of 2022.
Last month alone, more than 4,000 migrants tried to cross the border.
