Wagner's mercenaries threaten an incursion into Poland and Russia mercilessly attacks Odessa

Wagner's Russian mercenaries are threatening Poland with an armed incursion from Belarus, while the Russian military has again targeted historic Odessa, shelling apartment blocks, port facilities and the city's largest Orthodox cathedral.

“Maybe I shouldn't say it, but I will.. The Wagnerites have begun to worry us. 'We will ask to go from the West, give us permission'. And I tell them, why do you want to go to the West?. It is the only way to defeat Russian missile terror,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on his Telegram channel.

Wagner looks to the West

Lukashenko assured Putin that Minsk will keep the Wagnerites under control at the Moguiliov base, as agreed after the failed armed rebellion led by the group just a month ago, and that it will not allow them to move, since their “state of mind is bad”.

This Sunday was precisely the first meeting between the two leaders since the uprising, in which the Belarusian interceded and managed to convince Wagner's boss, Yevgueni Prigozhin, to withdraw to Belarus.

While Lukashenko was sympathetic to the mercenaries' desires, Putin – who first called his boss Prigozhin a traitor and then invited him to the Kremlin – looked on impassively.

According to Wagner, several thousand Wagnerites are currently deployed in Belarus, which will soon reach 10,000, out of a total of 25,000 who are still “healthy and alive.”

A tenth column of Russian mercenaries arrived in the former Soviet republic on Sunday aboard trucks and minibuses, said the Gayun research team, which monitors military activity on Belarusian territory.

This week Minsk reported joint training with the Wagnerites on the border with Poland, which immediately announced the dispatch of two military units to the area.

Putin and Lukashenko, thick and thin

Lukashenko thanked Putin for saying what no Russian leader has ever said and that is to consider an attack on Belarus as an attack on Russia.

“You are the first person in Russia to say it in an open, clear and understandable way,” said the Belarusian, who recalled that “the war is being waged against the entire NATO bloc.”

And he showed Putin a map with the deployment of Polish troops near the Belarusian borders.

Poland has deployed a brigade about 40 kilometers from the city of Brest and another about 100 kilometers from Grodno, when previously those units were about 500 kilometers away, he explained.

“The Poles have opened (a factory for) the repair of (tank) Leopard on their territory. And the Rzeszow airfield is activated, where the Americans send their equipment,” he said.

Lukashenko denounced that the rumors about Ukraine's entry into NATO are a “smoke screen” behind which are hidden the alleged Warsaw plans denounced by Moscow on the occupation of western Ukraine, an option that he considered “unacceptable”.

odesa hell

Odesa once again focused all the anger of Moscow on Sunday, whose cruise missiles launched from the air, sea and land (the annexed Crimean peninsula) hit civil infrastructure, apartment blocks and churches, leaving one dead and twenty injured.

Partially damaged was the Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral, the city's main Orthodox temple and still dependent on the Moscow Patriarchate.

“Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral…. There can be no excuse for Russian wickedness. As always, this evil will lose. And there will definitely be reprisals for Russian terrorists for Odessa. They will feel these reprisals,” said Zelensky, who called for the convening of the Ukraine-NATO council due to the massive Russian attacks in the Black Sea.

The largest attack on the city since the beginning of the war caused damage to 25 architectural monuments in the city's historic center, a UNESCO world heritage site.

Russia denied attacking the cathedral and stressed that its target had been the aquatic drones used to carry out terrorist attacks in Crimea.

In addition, both sides continue to accuse each other of using cluster bombs as in the Russian attack on Sunday against the city of Chasiv Yar (Donetsk), which destroyed a humanitarian and medical aid center, according to the authorities.