Poland has expressed concerns about the border area since hundreds of Russia’s Wagner mercenaries arrived in Belarus last month.

“About 10,000 soldiers will be on the border, of which 4,000 will directly support the Border Guard and 6,000 will be in the reserve,” the minister said in an interview for public radio on Thursday.

“We move the army closer to the border with Belarus to scare away the aggressor so that it does not dare to attack us,” Blaszczak said.

Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik said on Wednesday that Poland would send 2,000 additional troops to its frontier with Belarus.

Poland has worried increasingly about the border area since hundreds of battle-hardened Wagner mercenaries arrived in Belarus last month at the invitation of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarus continues its military exercises near the border this week, and Lukashenko has said several times that he was restraining Wagner fighters who want to attack Poland.

Poland has also seen an increase in the number of mainly Middle Eastern and African migrants and refugees trying to cross the border in recent months.

The head of the Border Guard, Tomasz Praga, said earlier this week that 19,000 undocumented people have tried to cross the Polish-Belarusian border this year, up from 16,000 last year.