Lukashenko tells Putin that Wagnerites transferred to Belarus want to ‘go on an excursion’ to Poland

At a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko said that Wagner Group fighters transferred to Belarus started to “bother” him, since they “want to go on an excursion to Warsaw.”

Interfax cited Lukashenko as saying: “The Wagnerites started to bother us. They say, ‘We want to go west. Allow us.’ I ask them, Why west? ‘Well, to go on an excursion to Warsaw, to Rzeszow.’ I’m keeping them in the center of Belarus, as was agreed upon, I would not like to relocate them there, because they are in a bad mood.”

According to the Belarusian state-run news agency Belta, Lukashenko brought a map to his meeting with Putin, allegedly showing the transfer of Polish troops to the border with the Union State (a supranational union consisting of Belarus and Russia). According to Lukashenko, one Polish brigade is now located 40 kilometers (around 25 miles) from the Belarusian city of Brest, while another brigade is located 100 kilometers (around 62 miles) from the Belarusian city of Grodno.