MOSCOW, August 10. /TASS/. Poland intends to deploy 10,000 troops at the border with Belarus, National Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told Polish Radio on Thursday.

"There will be about 10,000 soldiers: 4,000 will directly deal with border protection and 6,000 will be in the region," he said.

The Polish army is actively developing and receiving advanced equipment, he said.

"Over two years, we will have the strongest army in Europe," he claimed, stressing that the Polish army’s numerical strength already equaled 170,000 personnel.

Poland has made a decision to bolster its military presence at the border with Belarus after fighters of Russia’s Wagner private military company appeared on Belarusian soil and an alleged intrusion by two Belarusian military helicopters into its airspace.

The Polish authorities, however, point to a new escalation of the border migration crisis lingering since the autumn of 2021 as the main reason for bolstering the protection of the border with Belarus. As Poland’s border guard officials assert, they again witness a growing number of illegal migrants trying to cross into Polish territory and observe their aggressive actions, with migrants hurling stones, bottles and wooden poles at border guards.

The Polish authorities claim that the crisis at the border with Belarus is being provoked by the Belarusian and Russian authorities allegedly to destabilize the situation on NATO’s eastern flank. Moscow and Minsk have repeatedly rejected these allegations.