In Belarus, Morawiecki has warned that Wagner fighters might pose as migrants and enter the EU under the guise of asylum seekers.

Polish officials describe Wagner’s actions as “hybrid warfare” because of his ability to facilitate illegal immigration from Belarus.

The PM reported that about 100 Wagner troops have moved near the Polish/Lithuanian border near Grodno.

A deal ended a brief mutiny in Russia in June by transferring some Wagner troops to Belarus.

The Polish government sees Wagner’s presence in Belarus as a potential threat and is looking to strengthen its eastern flank.

Lukashenko has previously denied provoking a migrant crisis in Europe by luring migrants to its borders with EU nations.

Morawiecki said on Saturday that more than 100 members of the Wagner group had moved to north-west Belarus near the Suwalki gap – Poland’s 60-mile (95km) border with Lithuania, which separates Belarus from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

According to him, the mercenaries might pose as Belarusian border guards to assist migrants in crossing into the EU, or even pretend to be migrants themselves.

On a visit to an arms factory in Gliwice, southern Poland, he told a news conference that the situation was becoming even more dangerous.

According to him, this is certainly the beginning of more hybrid attacks against Polish territory in the near future.

There have been several thousand Wagner fighters moving to Belarus since the group’s short-lived mutiny in June. Among the options they were offered was joining the regular Russian army or moving to Belarus, one of Russia’s close allies.

Poles, Lithuanians and Latvians could decide jointly to close their borders with Belarus if incidents involving the Wagner group occurred along their borders, according to Poland’s interior minister on Thursday.

Belarus’ President Lukashenko said last weekend he would keep the Wagner mercenaries in the central part of the country.

“They want to go to Warsaw,” Lukashenko joked in a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

However, I am keeping them in central Belarus as agreed.”

It has been reported that 16,000 people have attempted to cross the border between Belarus and Poland this year, according to Morawiecki.

From January to June, 2,312 illegal border crossings into the EU occurred from Belarus, according to the EU border agency Frontex.