Poland will send 500 police officers to the border with Belarus, Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said on Sunday, citing Reuters.

Polish border police reported on Sunday that 187 people tried to cross illegally into Poland from Belarus on Saturday.

“Due to the tense situation on the border with Belarus, we have decided to strengthen our forces with 500 Polish police officers from the prevention and counter-terrorism units,” Kaminsky wrote on Twitter.

“They will join the 5,000 border guards and 2,000 soldiers who keep this border safe.”

The statement came after a senior Polish intelligence official warned yesterday that Wagner’s fighters, who are moving towards Belarus after a failed insurgency in Russia, could use migrants from Africa and other places where the paramilitary group operates to destabilize central and eastern Europe.

Jacek Siewara, head of Poland’s National Security Authority, told the Financial Times that “the risk for Poland is linked to the number of Wagner mercenaries who remain in Minsk.”

The threat, he added, should be assessed “in conjunction with all the assets that Wagner has in Africa, the Maghreb, the Sahel and the Middle East, as well as the risk of an escalation of forced immigration and an asymmetric attack on the borders of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.”