Baltic States Warn Of Military Clash Over Belarus 'Deliberate Escalation' Of Migrant Crisis

Baltic States Warn Of Military Clash Over Belarus' "Deliberate Escalation" Of Migrant Crisis

TYLER DURDEN

Countries neighboring Belarus and Poland are warning of potential coming military confrontation between the two countries as the migrant border crisis continued escalating in the overnight hours and into Thursday. 

"Migrants stranded inside Belarus threw stones and branches at Polish border guards and used tree trunks to try to break down a barbed wire fence overnight in new attempts to force their way into the EU, Warsaw authorities said on Thursday," Reuters described of the scene near the northeast Polish village of Kuznica.

The situation is being considered urgent enough for the defense ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to come together and issue a joint statement condemning Belarus for using migrants as weapons. This after Polish officials charged Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko with sending Muslim migrants into the EU as a form of "hybrid attack" and as retaliation for Western sanctions.

The three Baltic countries condemned "the deliberate escalation of the ongoing hybrid attack by the Belarusian regime, which poses a serious threat to European security."

"This increases the possibility of provocations and serious incidents that could also spread to the military," the joint statement said further. 

Both Lithuania and Latvia have along with Poland sent military and border patrol reinforcements to key crossings shared with Belarus. In fresh statements Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski called the crisis "the worst threat Poland has faced in the last thirty years."

Poland and EU officials have continued to accuse Belarus of orchestrating a provocation at the border, after videos emerged of Belarusian security appearing to assist migrants in their confrontation with Polish police on the other side at Kuznica crossing.

Russia is also now standing accused of being involved, which the Kremlin angrily rejected on Wednesday. Reuters describes there's a series of necessary logistical steps prior to Mideast migrants arriving at the entry points to the EU via Belarus:

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Poland Sees Migrant Border Surge, Accuses Belarus Of ‘State Terrorism’

Source + HD Editor’s Note

Poland said Wednesday it had seen a surge in attempts to breach its border and pushed back hundreds of migrants to Belarus, accusing Minsk of “state terrorism” by provoking a new migrant crisis in Europe.

Concern was growing for more than 2,000 migrants — mainly Kurds from the Middle East — who are trapped at the border, with the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on Thursday over the issue.

Western governments accuse Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko of luring them to his country and sending them to cross into European Union and NATO member Poland in retaliation for EU sanctions.

“What we are facing here, we must be clear, is a manifestation of state terrorism,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters in Warsaw at a news conference with visiting EU chief Charles Michel.

Michel said new sanctions against Belarus “are on the table”.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said she expected “a widening of the sanctions” at the beginning of next week.

“This is the attempt of an authoritarian regime to try to destabilise its democratic neighbours. This will not succeed,” she said, speaking after a meeting with US President Joe Biden in Washington.

Migrants have been trying to cross the border for months but the crisis reached a new level when hundreds made a concerted effort on Monday and were pushed back by Polish borders guards.

They set up a camp on the border, sheltering in tents and burning wood from local forests to keep warm, blocked by Polish guards behind razor-wire.

In the Polish town of Sokolka near the border, AFP reporters saw patrols stopping vehicles to check the boots for migrants, as well as lines of military trucks and police vans going to and from the border.

Poland has sent 15,000 troops to the border along with police and border guards, accusing Belarus of using intimidation to force migrants to breach the frontier.

Belarus has in turn accused Poland of violating international norms by blocking the migrants and violently beating them back.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday called Lukashenko’s main backer, Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking him “to use his influence” with Minsk to stop what she called an “inhumane” instrumentalisation of migrants.

The Kremlin said it was “irresponsible” for Poland to blame Putin for the crisis, while Belarus’s Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said the EU was causing the crisis because it wanted a reason to impose new sanctions.

“The migrant crisis was provoked by the EU itself and its states that border Belarus,” Makei said on a visit to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday.

Lavrov accused Western institutions of mounting an “anti-Belarusian campaign”, and said Russia and Belarus had “closely coordinated our approaches” to countering it.