More than fifty migrants have been arrested near the border with Belarus, the Polish government says. Previously, the Polish Defense Minister, Mariusz B?aszczak, had announced that there had been many attempts to breach the border during the night, adding that at the moment there are about 15 thousand soldiers lined up at the border: “It was not a quiet night. There have been many attempts to break the line, but all those who have crossed it have been arrested “.
Putin, the war and the mistakes of the West
by Viktor Erofeev
Shoot in the air
The Polish Ministry of Defense also accused Belarusian forces of shooting in the air in a border area where migrants have set up a makeshift camp. The ministry posted a video on Twitter with sounds of what sounded like gunshots. L’Associated Press However, it clarifies that it is impossible to independently verify the information due to the state of emergency which prevents journalists, activists and other non-residents from entering the area along the border.
Belarus, open confrontation on migrants. The EU attacks Lukashenko: “Gangster”
by our correspondent Tonia Mastrobuoni
The situation is dramatic. At least two thousand people are stranded in the woods on the border between Belarus and Poland in a desperate attempt to enter the EU, with freezing temperatures and very few supplies of water and food, while military tension rises to alert levels. The crisis would be orchestrated according to Brussels by the autocrat Vladimir Lukashenko as a retaliation against sanctions, with a behavior defined by a “gangster regime”. In an emergency session in the Warsaw Parliament, the Polish premier Mateusz Morawiecki pointed the finger directly at the godfather of Minsk, Vladimir Putin, who just hours earlier had spoken to Lukashenko on the phone. Accusations flatly rejected by the Belarusian leader, who promises to “not give in” to Europe, in a tug-of-war that continues dramatically to be consumed on the skin of migrants.
“We also know that the Belarusian authorities are helping migrants to destroy the border barriers. We see them bringing them the tools to cut the cables and destroy the fence,” Warsaw accused. To underline the level of alarm, Morawiecki also visited the troops at the border yesterday. “Closing the Polish border is our national interest. But today the stability and security of the whole EU is at stake”, he warned.
Belarus pushes migrants to EU borders. “Unacceptable”
by Claudio Tito
On the other hand, the Belarusian Ministry of Defense summoned the military attaché at the Polish embassy in Minsk, rejecting as “groundless and unjustified” the “accusations about the involvement of Belarusian military” and urging Warsaw to avoid any “provocation for justify any illegal bellicose actions “.
The migrants encamped
In this tug-of-war, several hundred migrants, many of whom arrived from the Middle East on sponsored flights from Minsk, remain camped in precarious tents near the Polish border village of Kuznica, separated by a few meters and a barbed wire barrier from the cordon. of the Warsaw security forces. Among them, also several women and children in dramatic conditions and exposed to temperatures that drop below freezing at night. Since the beginning of the year, the ultraconservative and nationalist government of Warsaw has registered more than 23,000 irregular entries from the east, almost half in October. However, these numbers have not been confirmed by Frontex, which has been denied access to the Polish border for weeks.
Lukashenko and the “hunting and fishing holidays” for migrants on their way to the EU
di Wiktoria Bieliaszyn
NATO promises help
The hybrid war of migrants risks turning into open confrontation. The EU Council yesterday suspended the visa facilitation scheme for members of the Minsk regime and could give the green light to new sanctions in the coming days. A commitment solicited in particular by Berlin, which urges Brussels to act. “Poland or Germany cannot do it alone,” warned the German interior minister Horst Seehofer. Meanwhile, today the President of the European Council Charles Michel he meets Morawiecki in Warsaw to discuss the crisis, which also worries NATO more and more. Speaking with the Polish president Andrzej Duda, the secretary general Jens Stoltenberg he called it “serious”, promising the solidarity of the Alliance in case of need.
“No money for the walls.” Brussels divided on migrants
by our correspondent Claudio Tito
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