Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on Sunday in St. Petersburg with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who, as it is reported, jokingly said that mercenaries from Wagner, who train the Belarusian army, want to cross the border of NATO member Poland, reports Radio Free Europe.
"The team from Wagner is starting to stress us out, they want to go west. Let's visit Warsaw and Rzeszow," said Lukashenko.
However, there is no indication that Lukashenko was serious about it.
After the arrival of the Wagner fighters, Poland deployed additional forces to the border with Belarus.
Poland is moving additional troops to the border with Belarus in response to the arrival of Wagner's forces, which moved there after a brief uprising in Russia last month.
The meeting between Putin and Lukashenko comes two days after Moscow warned that any aggression against ally Belarus would be considered an attack on Russia.
The Russian president said that Moscow will use all means to respond to any hostility towards Minsk.
Although he did not send his troops to Ukraine, Lukashenko allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to launch an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has met frequently with Putin since then.
In comments to Lukashenko, Putin claimed that the Ukrainian counter-offensive had "failed".
"There is no counteroffensive," Russian news agencies quoted Lukashenko as saying.
Putin replied: "It exists, but it failed."
Ukraine launched a long-awaited counter-offensive last month, but has so far had little success against Russian forces.
US General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on July 18 that the Ukrainian campaign was "far from a failure" but that it would be long, difficult and bloody.
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