Latvia’s interior minister warns Minsk after standoff involving armed men and border guards
October 7, Pozirk. Latvia’s Interior Minister Jānis Dombrava accused Belarus of staging a “demonstrative and aggressive provocation” on the shared border in a post on X last evening after border guards did not allow a group of 20 undocumented foreigners to cross irregularly into Latvia.
Armed escorts of the group threatened Latvian soldiers from the Belarusian side and pressured undocumented foreigners to cross the border, the official said.
Several hours after this conflict, masked people entered Latvian territory, damaged a relay cabinet and stole surveillance cameras before retreating to Belarus, Dombrava said.
Authorities in Minsk “should understand that such incidents could lead to more serious consequences for Belarus,” the official stressed.
Belarus’ western neighbors have thwarted about 14,100 irregular crossings since the year’s start, with 11,900 attempts targeting Latvia, according to Pozirk’s analysis of border guards’ data.
On August 10, Latvia launched the operation Vilkatis to crack down on irregular migration by third-country nationals via Belarus. Initially scheduled to end on September 1, the operation was extended until the end of 2026.
The flow of people eager to cross into the EU surged in spring 2021 after Alaksandar Łukašenka, angered by EU sanctions, had indicated that Minsk would not prevent asylum seekers from Africa and Asia from using Belarus as a route to the EU.
In June 2021, the Belarusian government suspended a readmission agreement with the EU in response to sanctions that followed the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk.
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland call the migration crisis a “hybrid attack” orchestrated by Minsk and Moscow.
Latvia’s border chief: damage to surveillance equipment is deliberate
September 26, Pozirk. The deliberate damage to border video surveillance equipment and cables is not random vandalism, but targeted actions aimed at hindering border surveillance, said General Guntis Pujāts, chief of the Latvian State Border Guard. His remarks follow reports …
