Putin 'planning to use Wagner fighters to invade key strategic strip of land straddling border between Poland and Lithuania in move against Nato's Baltic states', crony reveals
- Russia is 'threatening' the Suwalki corridor - strategically important land
- Putin parliamentarian Andrey Kartapolov announced the threat on state TV
- However Poland's intelligence service insists it is monitoring the Wagner threat
Russia is 'planning to use Wagner fighters to invade a key strategic strip of land straddling the border between Poland and Lithuania', Putin's crony has revealed.
A top Putin parliamentarian revealed on Russian state television that mercenary forces were ready to march on the sought-after territory 'in a matter of hours', in a move that could trigger World War Three.
Poland's intelligence service has however said it is monitoring the Wagner mercenary threat, as its deputy head of special services Stanislaw Zaryn said there 'may be several hundred of them now'.
'The Polish services are monitoring the situation to find out how many Wagnerites will end up in Belarus,' he said, according to The Telegraph.
The Suwalki Corridor is a 60-mile strip of land straddling the border between Poland and Lithuania - and holds massive strategic importance for both Nato and Russia.
For the West, it is the only land link to the three ex-Soviet Baltic republics - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - which are seen as vulnerable to Putin if the current east-west tension worsens.
For Russia, control of the corridor would give a land link between the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, main base of Putin's Baltic Fleet, and firm Kremlin ally Belarus.
Russia is threatening to Wagner fighters to invade Nato's 'weakest link' in Poland and Lithuania 'in a matter of hours'. Pictured: Wagner troops on their way to Belarus
Putin (pictured in June) is planning to use the army to invade the strategically important Suwalki Corridor, a top crony has claimed
Reservist Colonel General Andrey Kartapolov, now an MP who is the loyalist chairman of the Russian parliament's defence committee, told state television: 'It is clear that Wagner [mercenary army] went to Belarus to train the Belarusian armed forces.
'[But] not only, and not so much. There is such a place as the Suwalki Corridor. Should anything happen, we need this Suwalki Corridor very much.
A strike force [based in Wagner forces in Belarus] is ready to take this corridor in a matter of hours.'
His 'shock fist' land grab plan would hit sparsely populated territory which has been labelled Nato's 'Achilles heel' or 'soft underbelly'.
Because it could be the first point of contact in a Third World War, the corridor has been branded 'the most dangerous place on earth'.
A Russian move here with state-backed Wagner would likely trigger Nato's clause 5, setting the Alliance against Russia.
Yet Poland is rapidly rearming due to the threat from Moscow, and Germany is to deploy 4,000 troops permanently in Lithuania as Nato strengthens its presence in the Baltic states.
The latest incendiary move from Russia comes less than 24 hours after Putin claimed that Russia has a 'sufficient stockpile' of cluster munitions that he threatened to use if Ukraine deploys the controversial weapons.
In an interview on Sunday Putin said: 'Until now, we have not done this, we have not used it, and we have not had such a need.'
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The Suwalki Corridor is a 60-mile strip of land straddling the border between Poland and Lithuania
Cluster bombs open in the air and release scores of smaller bomblets - however they have a high 'dud' rate, meaning they often leave behind unexploded segments that can harm civilians after the battle has ended.
The US has sent the cluster munitions to aid the war in Ukraine and are seen as a way to get Kyiv critically-needed ammunition to bolster its offensive against Russian forces.
Thousands of Wagner troops have arrived in Belarus in recent days. More were seen today on the road in Russia's Lipetsk region heading for the landlocked states.
An agreement was reached to move the troops to Belarus after Wagner halted their armed mutiny on June 24.
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