Alexander Lukashenko (Image: Getty)

       Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko says the Wagner mercenary group is “itching” to march on Poland – stoking fears Russia could expand its military campaign.

       In a televised chat with Russia’s President Putin, he chillingly revealed the group was saying: “Let’s go on an excursion to Warsaw.”

       Lukashenko told Putin he was “stressed” because he was having to restrain the mercenaries.

       The Russian dictator exiled the Wagner Group, a paramilitary unit that previously fought alongside his troops in Ukraine, to Belarus following an attempted mutiny by Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin against Moscow’s military leadership last month.

       The mercenaries are now based less than seven miles from the Polish border.

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       Vladimir Putin (Image: Getty)

       A video posted on Twitter by the Ukraine government showed Lukashenko saying: “They are asking to go to the West. I said, ‘Why do you want to go west?’ So they say, ‘We control what happens: let’s go on an excursion to Warsaw and Rzeszow’”, referring to the Polish capital and a key military hub for the country.

       The comments added to a stream of anti-Polish rhetoric coming from Moscow recently. In a meandering rant at the weekend, Putin told his military council online: “Poland’s leaders likely seek to set up a coalition under the Nato umbrella and directly join the conflict in Ukraine, and then tear off a piece for themselves and restore their, as they believe, historical territory – today’s western Ukraine.”

       Lukashenko, pictured with Putin meeting the public in St Petersburg on Sunday, also presented him with a map showing what he said were Polish plans to attack Belarus.

       Warsaw formerly held sway over much of central and eastern Europe as part of a wider commonwealth with Lithuania and parts of modern-day Ukraine.

       But it lost much of its territory during a period of crisis in the 18th century and was partitioned by Russia in 1772, 1792 and 1795 – souring relations irreparably.

       While many Poles may regret the new borders imposed by Russia after the Second World War, there is no serious case for Poland trying to “retake” former territories, like Lviv.

       Poland recently moved 1,000 troops towards Belarus after footage appeared to show Wagner forces training with Belarusian troops on the Polish border.

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       Yevgeny Prigozhin (Image: Getty)

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       US intelligence reports say Russia has now deployed nuclear weapons to the Belarusian puppet state.

       The country is bordered to the northwest by Lithuania and to the west by Poland. It is separated from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad by the Suwa？ki Gap, the border between Lithuania and Poland.

       The gap is Nato’s eastern flank, considered a point of vulnerability. If overwhelmed, it could cut off the Baltic States from western allies.

       The Polish government has pledged to set up a sapper battalion nearby to strengthen Nato’s eastern flank and secure the Suwa？ki Gap.

       And in a separate development on Monday, Poland revealed that a specialist maintenance hub for tanks damaged in Ukraine during the conflict with Russia has started operating in its southern city of Gliwice.

       Poland, one of Ukraine’s biggest allies since Russia’s invasion nearly 18 months ago, had been negotiating with Germany to create a joint workshop for Leopard tanks.

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