{"id":94786,"date":"2024-07-10T15:30:05","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T12:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/94786\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"polish-defense-ministry-sends-reinforcements-to-belarus-border","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/94786\/","title":{"rendered":"Polish defense ministry sends reinforcements to Belarus border"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

July 10, Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> Warsaw has deployed 8,000 soldiers to guard the border with Belarus with 9,000 soldiers on stand-by and ready to deploy within 48 hours, tvp.info<\/em> reported, citing Polish Secretary of Defense Pawe\u0142 Bejda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, media reported that Warsaw counted on the assistance of border guards and police from other European Union countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities in Minsk fully control the number of illegal border crossings by third-country nationals who travel with Russian visas, Polish Foreign Minister Rados\u0142aw Sikorski said on July 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some months illegal crossings are at zero, other months border guards face 300 to 400 intruders per day, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minsk can secure good-neighborly relations with Poland by releasing jailed journalist Andrzej Poczobut (Andrej Pa\u010dobut) and ending its security forces\u2019 involvement in the cross-border flows of illegal migrants, Sikorski stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The migration crisis at the Belarus-EU border started in spring 2021 after \u0141uka\u0161enka, angered by EU sanctions, had indicated that Minsk would not prevent migrants from Africa and Asia from using Belarus as a route to the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarus\u2019 western neighbors call the migration crisis a \u201chybrid attack\u201d by Minsk and Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tensions on the border escalated this spring with the spike in illegal border crossings and attacks on border guards by people trying to cross the border illegally. One of them resulted in the death of Polish soldier Mateusz Sitek, stabbed at the border with Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In mid-June, Warsaw enacted a 90-day border area entry ban and is considering closing all border crossings in response to the surge in illegal migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka reiterated earlier this month that he will not help the EU to combat illegal migration. \u201cYou tied a noose around our neck, and yet you are forcing us to defend you from these poor people,\u201d he said in a reference to the EU sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU had imposed sanctions on Belarus over allegations of human rights abuses, the forced landing of a Ryanair plane and Minsk\u2019s complicity in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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