Tensions mount amid migrant standoff at Poland-Belarus border

Poland has reinforced its border with Belarus with more riot police, a day after groups of migrants tried to storm through a razor-wire fence on the eastern frontier where thousands have camped on the Belarusian side in the tense standoff.

Polish authorities said on Wednesday all was calm overnight on the border — which is also the eastern edge of the 27-nation EU — but they were bracing for any possibility. 

The Defense Ministry said a large group of Belarusian forces was moving toward the migrant encampments.

Polish Maj. Katarzyna Zdanowicz estimated 3,000-4,000 migrants were along the border, including about 800 near the makeshift camps. 

Belarusian security services also were there to “control, steer and direct these people,” she added.

She said Poland's assessment came from aerial observations, alleging that Belarus authorities were taking journalists to the area to promote their version of events.

READ MORE: Poland declares state of emergency in regions bordering Belarus

Security 'being brutally violated'

Independent journalists have limited ability to operate in Belarus, and a state of emergency in Poland kept reporters and others away from its side of the border.

The scene was quiet as night fell, and migrants were seen getting water and other supplies on the Belarusian side, according to Zdanowicz, based on what observations from across the frontier. 

She said guards prevented some small groups from crossing, part of hundreds of such attempts Tuesday.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry summoned the Polish military attache to protest what it called “unfounded and unlawful Polish allegations" against the Belarusian military at the border.

It also voiced concern about the buildup of Polish troops there, saying Warsaw did not notify or invite Belarusian observers per international rules for activity involving more than 6,000 troops.

During a special session of parliament, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki described the situation at the border as part of an effort by Russia to disrupt a region that it controlled during the Soviet era that ended three decades ago.

“It must be strongly emphasized that the security of our eastern border is being brutally violated. This is the first such situation in 30 years when we can say that the integrity of our borders is being tested,” Morawiecki said.

Speaking during a UN Security Council meeting, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia rejected similar accusations, and noted that the migrants are not seeking to stay in Belarus but to get to Europe.

“So who is creating the crisis, building fences with barbed wire and concentrating troops at the border?” Nebenzia said, adding that the EU doesn’t want to accept the migrants, and “it is time to stop playing the blame game.”

On Tuesday, the EU tightened visa rules for Belarus officials, saying it was “partially suspending” an agreement with Minsk. The move affects Belarusian government officials, lawmakers, diplomats and top court representatives by requiring them to provide additional documents and pay more for visas.

The European Union accuses Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns in a “hybrid attack” against the bloc in retaliation for imposing sanctions on the authoritarian government for a brutal internal crackdown on dissent. 

Thousands were jailed and beaten following months of protests after Lukashenko won a sixth term in a 2020 election that the opposition and the West saw as rigged.

READ MORE: Migrant crisis in Poland ‘threatens security’ of entire EU