As the UN Security Council was expected to meet Thursday on an emergency basis upon request by France, Ireland, and Estonia, acting German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin had the second telephone talk in two days on the Belarus-Poland crisis.
According to the Kremlin account, Putin reiterated his advice to restore “contacts between the EU states and Belarus with a view to resolving this problem.” (The EU had cut off relations with Belarus after President Lukashenko won the 2020 election, and to this day, pretends that Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya holds office.) Putin also addressed the question of Ukraine’s “destructive policy, which is relying increasingly on force. Thus, it is using assault drones in violation of the Minsk Package of Measures.” The Kremlin statement adds that “the destabilizing and dangerous provocations by the armed forces of the United States and other NATO countries in the Black Sea was also noted.”
Meanwhile, in the midst of a dangerously escalating situation, Belarus’s President Lukashenko threatened to shut down the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline that supplies Europe with Russian gas if the EU extends new sanctions against Belarus for “causing” the border crisis.
