Poland denied on Friday that a military helicopter had violated Belarus’ airspace, calling Minsk’s assertions lies and provocations at a time when tensions between the neighbors are rising.
Relations between Minsk and Warsaw have deteriorated further since Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko enabled Moscow to use his country to invade Ukraine.
According to Belarus, the incident occurred over the border region of Grodno, which runs for around 400 kilometres (about 250 miles).
“These are lies and provocations from the Belarusian side”, said Jacek Goryszewski, spokesman for Poland’s armed forces’ operational command.
“There was absolutely no such violation. That’s according to the pilot’s dispatches and radar system records”, he explained.
The assertions were made on Telegram by the Belarusian Border Service, accompanied by a video reportedly showing a helicopter flying across the border.
“A Polish military helicopter Mi-24 crossed the state border at an extremely low altitude, flew up to 1,200 metres (4,000 feet) into Belarusian territory, and then returned”, it stated.
According to the Belarusian foreign ministry, the Polish charge d’affaires was summoned, and the Polish side was required to provide appropriate explanations and conduct a thorough investigation.
Pawel Jablonski, Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister, stated, “It is possible that this is a Belarusian provocation, which would be completely natural”.
“We will investigate the situation. However, statements from the Belarusian side should be interpreted with extreme caution”, he said.
Tensions between the two nations have risen, notably when Russian Wagner mercenary forces relocated to Belarus following a brief mutiny against Russia’s army in June.
Poland and the Baltic states asked last week that Belarus withdraw Wagner fighters.
The proposals were deemed stupid by Lukashenko, who accused the countries of whipping up hysteria about the presence of Wagner private military employees on our territory.
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