The rising number of migrants on the eastern EU external border should also occupy the UN Security Council on Thursday. France, Estonia and Ireland requested the meeting of the most powerful UN body in the afternoon (local time) in New York. The council should meet behind closed doors.
Meanwhile, the migration conflict is becoming more and more of a burden for the West’s relationship with Russia. Moscow stepped up on Wednesday as a supporter of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to influence Lukashenko. Meanwhile, hundreds of migrants stuck in Belarus are still trying to get into the EU.
Merkel: “Inhuman and unacceptable”
“The Chancellor emphasized that the instrumentalization of migrants against the European Union by the Belarusian regime was inhuman and completely unacceptable and asked the Russian President to influence the regime in Minsk,” said government spokesman Steffen Seibert. Putin, in turn, replied to Merkel that the EU states should contact the Belarusian government directly in the conflict, as Putin’s broker announced.
At the same time, Russia demonstratively underscored its support for the leadership in Minsk. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov received his Belarusian colleague Vladimir Makey in Moscow. In addition, two Russian fighter planes flew over Belarusian airspace. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow spoke of a test of the joint air defense in both countries.
Russian answer
A spokesman for the Russian Presidential Office made the European Union responsible for the situation of migrants at the border. He warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and accused the EU of violating its own values. With the planned partial closure of the Polish border, the international community is trying to “strangle” Belarus.
The Kremlin spokesman was outraged by a comment by Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki that the “mastermind” of the crisis was in Moscow. Morawiecki had accused the Belarusian leadership of state terrorism with the aim of destabilizing the EU.
The conflict was also the subject of NATO deliberations. Poland informed the Allies in Brussels about the current situation. “The allies have made it clear that Belarus bears responsibility for the crisis and that the use of migrants by the Lukashenko regime (…) is inhuman, illegal and unacceptable,” said an alliance spokesman after the meeting. NATO is ready to continue to support the affected allies.
Thousands of people advanced to the Polish-Belarusian border this week. Video footage showed babies and toddlers were among the people. Some of the migrants tried to cut through the barbed wire fences with shovels and wooden beams.
“It was not a quiet night. In fact, there have been many attempts to break through the Polish border,” said Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak. According to him, the number of domestic soldiers on the border was increased to 15,000 from 12,000. Like Poland before, Lithuania has now declared a state of emergency on the border with Belarus.
The EU cannot be blackmailed
But the EU is not open to blackmail. The EU accuses Lukashenko of specifically orchestrating illegal border crossings by migrants in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Belarus. To this end, Lukashenko had refugees flown from Syria and Iraq to Minsk, for example, in order to smuggle them to the Polish border and thus into the EU. Most of the migrants then make their way to the German border. Against this background, the EU Commission is currently targeting flights from other countries to Belarus. Poland’s Prime Minister Morawiecki said after his meeting with Michel that the EU would have to block flights from the Middle East to the neighboring country.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government announced that it would double the border protection along the border with Belarus. This is to prevent migrants from illegally crossing the border, said the Interior Ministry in Kiev.
Source From: Nachrichten
