Poland and Belarus yesterday squared off over thousands of migrants aiming to enter EU-member Poland, with Warsaw saying the wave threatened the security of the entire bloc.
Minsk warned against “provocations” on the border, where armed troops from both countries are deployed amid escalating tensions.
Trapped between the rhetoric are thousands of people, many escaping war and poverty in the Middle East, trying to survive outdoors in squalid conditions as temperatures dip toward freezing.
Photo: AFP
The EU accuses Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating the crisis in retaliation for Western sanctions on Minsk, charges that he denies.
Poland on Monday blocked a bid by hundreds of migrants to breach the razor-wire border fence as thousands more massed in the area.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki yesterday said that Warsaw would continue to turn the migrants away.
Photo: Reuters
“Sealing the Polish border is our national interest, but today the stability and security of the entire EU is at stake,” Morawiecki wrote on Twitter.
“This hybrid attack of Lukashenko’s regime is aimed at all of us. We will not be intimidated and will defend peace in Europe with our partners from NATO and EU,” he said.
The Belarusian Ministry of Defense said the allegations were “unfounded and unsubstantiated,” and accused Poland of “deliberately” escalating tensions.
It said that Poland had deployed 10,000 military personnel to the border without giving prior warning to Belarusian authorities, in what it said was in contravention of joint security agreements.
“We would like to warn the Polish side in advance against any provocations directed against the Republic of Belarus to justify illegal use of force against disadvantaged, unarmed people, among whom there are many children and women,” the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The Polish Ministry of National Defense shared video footage on Twitter showing what it said appeared to be a “large group of Belarusian officers” approaching the vicinity of the migrants camps near the Polish border village of Kuznica.
“According to our estimates, there could even be 12,000 to 15,000 migrants in Belarus,” Polish special services spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn told Polish radio.
About 4,000 are estimated to be massed near Kuznica, the services said yesterday.
Washington and Brussels have called on Minsk to stop what they describe as an orchestrated influx.
NATO on Monday also hit out at Belarus, accusing the government of using the migrants as political pawns, while the EU called for fresh sanctions against the nation.
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