www.zerohedge.com by TYLER DURDEN
Over the weekend and into Monday Poland is charging that Belarus is still transporting migrants to its border, despite successful attempts of Polish guards to dismantle camps just across the barbed-wire border fence along northeast Poland.
“On Saturday ⊠a group of about 100 very aggressive foreigners, brought to the border by Belarusian servicemen, tried to enter Poland by force. (Polish) services prevented the crossing,” the Polish Border Guard had announced Saturday. But the fiercest denunciation came on Sunday with remarks of Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who directly charged Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko with “blackmail” by using migrants in “a hybrid war against the EU”
Lukashenka launched a hybrid war against the EU.This is greatest attempt to destabilize Europe in 30years. đ”đ±will not yield to blackmail and will do everything to defend the EUâs borders. PL, LT, LV, EST need support.We must stand together to defend Europehttps://t.co/OMEtY70vlo
— Mateusz Morawiecki (@MorawieckiM) November 21, 2021
“This is the greatest attempt to destabilize Europe in 30 years,” Morawiecki wrote on Twitter on Sunday. He vowed that Poland would “not yield to blackmail” and will continue to “do everything to defend the EU’s borders”.
“Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia need support. We must stand together to defend Europe,” the Polish PM added. “Today, on Poland’s eastern border, we are dealing with a new type of war, a war in which migrants are weapons, in which disinformation is a weapon.”
Interestingly the statements came just after Lukashenko appeared to stop just short of openly admitting his forces were behind orchestrating the crisis. This after EU countries have made such an allegation precisely, given Minsk is seeking retaliation for recent European sanctions placed on the Lukashenko government over protest crackdown following last year’s contested re-election of the Belarusian strongman.
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Thousands of migrants and refugees are stranded along the Belarus border with Poland amid a raging geopolitical row.
Here's what you need to know about the Belarus-Poland border crisis đ
đ: https://t.co/1ZuBkvbFmc pic.twitter.com/Vmavsf0UpJ
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 21, 2021
Lukashenko had told the BBC on Friday that it was “absolutely possible” forces loyal to him or “maybe someone” else had helped migrants cross into the EU.
He admitted he “won’t stop them” – saying it’s no longer Belarus’ problem if the Middle East migrants are seeking to go to Western Europe:
“I told them [the EU] I’m not going to detain migrants on the border, hold them at the border, and if they keep coming from now on I still won’t stop them, because they’re not coming to my country, they’re going to yours. But I didn’t invite them here. And to be honest, I don’t want them to go through Belarus”, Lukashenko stated.
Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko accepts migrants were helped to cross into Poland but denies inviting them, in an exclusive BBC interview https://t.co/GIFqPvf2er
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) November 19, 2021
Highly censored BBC News version of the BBC interview with Lukashenko. In the unedited version, Steve Rosenberg squirms as Lukashenko describes Polish border forces 'behaving like Nazis,' attacking pregnant women and children with water canon, stun grenades and gas. pic.twitter.com/WeQYlQvXs2
— Ragged Trousered Philanderer (@RaggedTP) November 19, 2021
Though the border crisis and standoff appears to be less intense compared to the clashes of last week, which saw the Polish side unleash water cannons and tear gas on migrants attempting to break down the fence, Morawiecki had further warned that the crisis is likely a prelude to “something much worse” – suggesting perhaps he has the possibility of a military clash with Belarusian forces in his mind.
The fact that Lukashenko has now essentially admitted he’s doing nothing to thwart the migrants’ movement toward the EU, puts added pressure on his powerful back Russia to disown his actions. The Polish prime minister had also this weekend lashed out directly at Putin, charging that he’s currently giving Belarus “back-room support”.
