Ukraine-Russia war live: Poland threatens to close borders with Belarus over Wagner fighter

Poland and the Baltic states have threatened to close their borders with Belarus, as they urged Minsk’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko to expel Wagner mercenaries from the country. There have been growing tensions on Nato’s eastern flank since Wagner fighters relocated to Belarus following the shortlived mutiny against Russia’s military leadership led by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in June, who Russian officials said died in a plane crash near Moscow last week. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have now warned jointly that Belarus must expel the remaining mercenaries and remove migrants from their borders, following previous attempts by Minsk to “dump” migrants at their borders in a bid to destabilise them. Polish interior minister Mariusz Kaminski warned that any “critical incident” involving the military or an influx of migrants would result in the closure of all border crossings to travellers and goods. It came as Ukraine’s military declared it had liberated the Zaporizhzhia village of Robotyne, with Kyiv’s troops now reportedly advancing towards Russia’s second line of defence, as fierce fighting also rages in the east. Read More Ukraine flag flies on building after village of Robotyne captured from Russia Poland is investigating disruptions to train traffic from unauthorized radio signals How ‘industrial-scale’ Russian minefields are hampering Ukraine’s counteroffensive What next for the Wagner Group as leader presumed dead in plane crash?