So far, they were firing only into the air. The Poles say Belarus border patrol fired into the air to push the migrants over the border. The Belarus side says it was the Polish police. Hundreds of refugees, who want to enter the EU through Poland, have remained in the freezing cold for days now.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being behind Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko’s alleged tactics of using the migrants. “This attack which Lukashenko is conducting has its mastermind in Moscow, the mastermind is President Putin,” Morawiecki told the Polish parliament. He said migrants were being used as “human shields to destabilize the situation in Poland and the EU,” according to France24. A spokesman for the EU Commission accused Lukashenko of using “gangster methods.” German Acting Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called for sanctions against Minsk, as well as anyone who helps Lukashenko.
According to Deutsche Welle, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on EU members to approve “expanded sanctions” against Belarus. These include sanctions against airlines that help transport refugees to Belarus. The Polish government accused the Russian Aeroflot and Turkish Airlines of being part of an organized transport scheme. The issue will probably be on the agenda of the EU Foreign Ministers meeting next week.
Lukashenko and Putin spoke on the phone yesterday. According to Belarus state news agency Belta, they shared concern over the build-up of Polish troops at the border. The Kremlin reported, that they “exchanged opinions on the situation with refugees at Belarus borders with Poland and Lithuania.” Putin discussed the issue today with acting head of the German government Angela Merkel, and proposed “direct dialogue between … EU member states and Minsk to discuss the problems that have emerged.”
Lukashenko said on television yesterday that “to conduct a war with these unfortunate people on the border of Poland with Belarus and move forward columns of tanks ― it’s clear this is either a training exercise or it’s blackmail. We will calmly stand up to this.”
