MINSK. Aug 31 (Interfax) - The demand of the leadership of Poland and the Baltic countries that Wagner Group members must leave Belarus is groundless and ridiculous, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said, adding that NATO contingents should be withdrawn from Belarus' neighbors first.
"They [the authorities of Poland and the Baltic countries] have gone as far as starting to demand the immediate withdrawal of them [Wagner Group members] from Belarus. At the same time, they themselves are enlarging their military budgets and are amassing large military formations near our borders," the BelTA Belarusian state-run news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying at a meeting of the Belarusian Security Council on Thursday.
"The answer is simple: neither Poland, nor Lithuania, nor any other Baltic countries should have a single foreign soldier [in their territory]. Then they could put forth complaints to us regarding the presence of servicemen of other countries [in Belarus]. But so far these are unsubstantiated and stupid demands - exactly demands, not even requests or proposals," the Belarusian president said.