According to Poland’s border guards, Belarus is preparing to storm the border
Polish border officials guard the EU’s external border with Belarus
Source: AFP / OKSANA MANCHUK
On Poland’s border with Belarus, thousands of migrants on the Belarusian side are waiting in freezing temperatures. Poland is now raising allegations to the security forces on the other side.
P.Olens border guards have accused the security forces in Belarus of preparing the migrants stuck at the common border to break through the barrier. At the border town of Kuznica, many tents had disappeared in the camp on the Belarusian side, the border guards wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “The foreigners get instructions, tools and tear gas from the Belarusian security forces.”
The Ministry of Defense said the refugees had gathered branches from the forest. In addition, many Belarusian media are present. The Polish police warned the migrants via loudspeaker announcements in English: “If you do not follow the instructions, violence will be used.”
This information cannot be verified independently because Poland has declared a state of emergency in the border region. Journalists and helpers are not allowed in. This also applies to the border area on the Belarusian side. On Poland’s border with Belarus, thousands of migrants on the Belarusian side have been waiting for several days at temperatures around freezing point in makeshift camps in the forest. The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko is accused of bringing refugees from crisis regions to the EU’s external border in an organized manner.
Opposition Belarusian Telegram channels posted videos on Sunday afternoon allegedly showing larger groups of migrants approaching the Polish border. “There are more and more migrants”, it was said about the medium Nexta.
According to the Polish police, a group of 50 migrants had broken through the barrier on the border with Belarus the night before and reached Poland. The incident occurred on Saturday evening near the village of Dubicze Cerkiewne, a police spokesman said on Sunday.
Latvia started a previously unannounced military exercise in the south-east of the EU country on the border with Belarus over the weekend. Defense Minister Artis Pabriks said on Latvian television on Sunday that around 3,000 soldiers from the regular armed forces and volunteer armies of the Baltic EU and NATO countries will take part.
According to a spokeswoman for the Defense Ministry in Riga, the maneuver, which will run until December 12, is intended to train large-scale cooperation between various military units and command structures as well as logistics and mobility.