Poland launches 4,000-member army task force near Belarus border

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Poland has inaugurated a permanent military task force of 4,000 soldiers near its border with Russian ally Belarus for the purposes of "training and defense," the country's defense minister said Saturday.

Mariusz Blaszczak made the announcement while visiting a temporary camp of Polish soldiers who have been positioned near the Belarus border at Jarylowka in Podlaskie province.

"There is no doubt the Polish border is under threat," Blaszczak told reporters at the camp, according to a translation by the Polish news agency PAP. "We are witnessing an ongoing pressure on the Polish border, attempts by migrants to cross the border illegally, encouraged the Belarusian regime... cooperating with the Kremlin... in order to destabilize our country."

The defense minister said 4,000 Polish Army members will comprise the new permanent task force, code-named "Rengaw." He insisted its purpose is "deterrence" and is meant to train soldiers in the Podlaskie border region as well as to establish a "reserve" in case the security situation on the border deteriorates.

The task force is part of an effort to send a total of roughly 10,000 troops to the border with Belarus as part of "Operation Gryf," which Blaszczak announced this week.

The troops are reinforcing the border amid ongoing escalating tensions with Russia-allied Belarus following the alleged violation of Polish airspace and repeated attempts to illegally cross the border.

The escalating border tensions between Belarus and NATO member Poland include reports that some Wagner mercenaries are moving toward Poland's Suwalki Gap bordering Russia's Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad.

The task force's newly appointed commander, Col. Arkadiusz Mikołajczyk, told reporters the soldiers will operate in an area 250 miles wide and 100 miles in from the border, most often at night.