Maciej Wasik, deputy interior minister: Perhaps we will open some of the currently closed border crossings with Belarus
Rafał Guz/PAP

Poland might open some of the previously closed border crossings if Belarus makes concessions on the Wagner group mercenaries departure and abandoning the current migration policy, the deputy interior and administration minister said.

On Monday, the situation in Belarus was part of talks between Mariusz Kaminski, the Polish interior and administration minister and his counterparts from the three Baltic states.

Following talks with his Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian counterparts in Warsaw, Kaminski made a statement that Poland will close its border with Belarus if a “critical incident” occurs even on the Belarusian border with Lithuania and Latvia.

“The meeting of interior ministers showed that we will act jointly and unanimously on the border with Belarus,” Maciej Wasik, a deputy interior and administration minister told state-owned broadcaster TVP.

“Regardless of whether there is an incident on the Polish, Latvian or Lithuanian-Russian border, we will react in the same way as our neighbours” he added when asked about the possibility of the complete closure of all border crossings with Belarus.

Wasik said that the departure of the Wagner group and abandoning the current migration policy are the two basic conditions that Belarus must meet if it does not want to be isolated.

“Perhaps we will open some of the currently closed crossings,” he said, and added that “if there is no such cooperation (on the two issues – PAP), neighbouring countries will close all crossings, not only road but also rail, and Belarus will be, de facto, ‘cut off’ from Europe.”

Wasik went on to say that “we must be prepared for the worst case scenario, for example the use of Wagner mercenaries against border guards,” and added that this is why Poland currently has 10,000 soldiers on the border, of which 4,000 support the Border Guard in its current work, and 6,000 are reserves.