DW investigates: The Wagnerians invade Poland disguised as migrants?

Intimidate Poland - that was apparently the ultimate goal of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and Russia's Vladimir Putin. At a meeting between the two on July 21 in St. Petersburg, Lukashenko said that the mercenaries of the Russian Wagner group located in his country "want to go to Warsaw and Rzeszow."

Polish politicians and the Polish media reacted immediately - Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also announced that Wagner's group might be on the way to the Polish border. He says that he has information that more than a hundred mercenaries of the Wagner group have advanced in the direction of the Suvalki gap, that is, the part of the border between Lithuania and Poland that stretches from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to Belarus.

Meanwhile, claims are circulating on the Internet that Wagner's mercenaries are already arriving in Poland almost unnoticed.

Are Wagner's mercenaries really entering Poland disguised as migrants?

Assertion: "The Wagnerians enter Poland posing as migrants," claimed several users on Twitter, for example here. They refer to the Polish television station Polsat News, which reported on it. "It is certain that illegal immigrants from Belarus are entering the country, who are actually PMC Wagner fighters," writes one of the users.

DW Fact Check: unconfirmed

The tweets refer to an interview conducted by TV Polsat News on July 28 with Belarusian opposition politician Pavel Latushka, who lives in exile in Warsaw. But, in it, he does not say that the fact that Wagner's mercenaries from Belarus are invading Poland "under the guise of migrants" - he only makes assumptions.

In an interview, Latuško says that there could already be several thousand of Wagner's mercenaries in Belarus and adds that it could be "that Lukashenko's and Putin's plans are to use Wagner's mercenaries disguised as migrants to provoke a local conflict on the border of that NATO country." Therefore, he is talking about it purely hypothetically.

Latuška's journalistic team confirmed this to DW in writing: "Mr. Latuška did not claim that Wagner's mercenaries entered Poland 'disguised as migrants.' There is no evidence for that."

Morawiecki also mentioned Wagner's alleged mercenaries disguised as migrants

The Polish Prime Minister addressed this issue on July 29, during a visit to the weapons factory in Gliwice. He made two assumptions about Wagner's mercenaries in Belarus. First, Morawiecki said: "They will probably also try to attack Poland posing as illegal immigrants." On the other hand, he says, Wagner's mercenaries would "probably" disguise themselves as Belarusian border guards and "help illegal migrants enter Polish territory in order to destabilize Poland."

These claims are just speculations about possible future events, without any evidence to support them. Poland's right-wing populist ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party is constantly drawing attention for claims against migrants.

Meanwhile, political experts say that Russia and Belarus' threats to Poland are staged. Russia is trying to reduce its support for Ukraine by threatening that NATO country. "Parliamentary elections will be held in Poland in the fall. "Both Putin and Lukashenko are trying to influence them, which includes threats - so that the voters go in the 'right' direction," Rihor Nizhnikau, a senior research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, told DW. The goal, therefore, is to distract Poland from the war, "to prevent the third world war", Nizhnikau assesses.

Conclusion: There is no evidence that Wagner's mercenaries from Belarus "disguised" as migrants or pretended to be, invaded Poland. Latuška and Moravjecki are only making assumptions.