Lukashenko threatened restrictions on the transnational Yamal-Europe gas pipeline. “We are supplying Europe with warmth, but they are threatening to close the border. What if we turn off the gas there? So I would recommend the Polish leadership, the Lithuanians and other mindless people to think before they speak,” said Lukashenko, according to the BelTA news agency. The EU had previously announced punitive measures against individuals and organizations.
Meanwhile, thousands of migrants spent another night in makeshift camps in the freezing cold on the EU’s eastern external border with Belarus. State-affiliated Belarusian media published videos of people coughing and bleeding during the night and accused the Polish side of attempting to intimidate them by shooting.
150 wanted to cross the border by force
About 150 people tried to violently break through the border, said Poland’s Deputy Interior Minister Bartosz Grodecki the Polsat News. Polish border guards, soldiers and around 20 police officers were on duty near Bialowieza when a large group of people gathered on the Belarusian side of the border, the Onet.pl portal quoted police spokesman Tomasz Krupa as saying. In the vicinity of the Kuznica border crossing, which has now been closed, it remained quiet at night. Much of the information from the border area cannot be verified because independent journalists have so far been denied access.
Nauseda told the Internet portal 15min.lt on Wednesday evening that the probability that migrants could dare to make a breakthrough on the Polish border is also “high enough” in Lithuania. “It is pretty obvious that this is not just a Polish problem, but that it can become a problem for both Lithuania and Latvia at any time.” In Lithuania, the state of emergency has been in effect for a month since Wednesday along the border strip and five kilometers inland. According to Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, Vilnius also wants to campaign for the creation of a humanitarian corridor that will enable migrants from the Belarusian side of the border to return home. According to the BNS news agency, this proposal is to be submitted to the UN Security Council. “We have also discussed it with the Iraqi government, and we and the EU can offer transport,” said Landsbergis.
Morawiecki: “New Kind of War”
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki spoke of a “new kind of war” in view of the worsening situation on the border with Belarus. “What we are dealing with is a new kind of war. A war in which civilians and media messages are the ammunition,” the head of government wrote on Thursday in a Facebook post. The Polish border guard registered a total of 468 attempts to illegally cross the border on Wednesday, as the authority tweeted on Thursday.
Amid the tensions, Belarus received another clear signal of support from Russia. As announced by the Ministry of Defense in Minsk, two Russian TU-160 fighter jets, which can also be armed with nuclear weapons, tried bombing attacks in an exercise in Belarus on Thursday.
Moscow says it wants to help solve the problem at the same time. “Like other countries, Russia is trying to work to resolve the situation,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday, according to the Interfax agency.
The majority of the arrested smugglers who help migrants from Belarus to flee to the European Union allegedly live in Germany. In most cases, the drivers come from third countries such as Iran, Iraq, Syria or Turkey, “who live in Germany,” reports the “Welt”, citing a confidential EU document.
Belarusians who were in possession of a Polish Schengen visa and Syrians living in the Netherlands were among the arrested people smugglers. According to a report by the EU Commission, Germany and Finland are the main destinations for migrants currently on the Polish EU external border.
Belavia und Turkish Airlines
According to the EU document, the Belarusian airline Belavia in cooperation with Turkish Airlines transports migrants from Istanbul to Minsk on four to seven flights a week, reports Die Welt. There would be space for 180 passengers at a time. The number of Iraqi and Syrian citizens flying to Minsk via Dubai is also increasing.
The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu rejected the reports that his country was targeting migrants to Belarus as unfounded. The Russian airline Aeroflot also denied allegations on Thursday that it was involved in bringing many refugees to Belarus. Corresponding reports are wrong.
Source From: Nachrichten
