The bacchanalia on the Belarusian-Polish border, where thousands of refugees from Asian countries (mainly from Syria and Afghanistan) have accumulated, trying to break into the European Union, remains extremely tense.
Belarusian border guards said that Poland has pulled military equipment to the border near the refugee camp. Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said that combat readiness was on the border and there were 12,000 soldiers there.
At the same time, there are more than two thousand refugees in front of the Polish barriers on the border line. The Polish authorities expect attacks on the border and are considering the possibility of convening a National Security Council.
Migrants, on the other hand, are determined. One of them on the video speaks Russian: "I swear to God, no one will go back!" It is known that most of the refugees are Kurds, and they do not take aggressive actions.
Russia did not stand aside. Minister Lavrov called for the settlement of the situation with migrants "in compliance with the norms of humanitarian law", recalling "where the legs grow from".
According to the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Peskov, Moscow is watching what is happening and calling for responsible behavior of the parties.
However, in Poland and in Europe, in general, they are convinced that the legs grow precisely from Belarus. Deputy Polish Foreign Minister Piotr Wawzhik said on the air of Polish Radio that he was convinced that the Belarusian authorities were striving for an escalation that would lead to casualties. He said that the migrants were led by Belarusian security forces, and the crowd was mostly young men.
The Polish troops were put on six o'clock readiness in the afternoon.
Of course, the situation is being monitored by NATO, whose head Stoltenberg said from its headquarters in Brussels: “We call on Belarus to respect international law. We are seeing a wave of migrants trying to enter Allied territory through Belarus. NATO continues to closely monitor the situation putting pressure on our allies - Lithuania, Latvia and Poland". Stoltenberg discussed the situation with the President of Poland and announced the solidarity of the alliance with Warsaw.
Germany is also in favor of a common response from the entire EU. The German Foreign Ministry said that they have evidence that the Belarusian regime is sending migrants to the Polish border.
Meanwhile, a similar situation is developing on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, and therefore the Ministry of Internal Affairs of this country proposes to introduce a state of emergency in the country and begins to pull its troops to the border.
The influential American newspaper The Washington Post quotes the words of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who in the West is considered the legally elected president of Belarus. She calls the situation on the border an attempt to take revenge on Lithuania and Poland for the support of the Belarusian people.
Belarusian writer Yevgenia Pasternak reports on her blog:
“Shots were heard at the border. Moreover, the Poles immediately published a video showing that they were shooting on the Belarusian side (they were shooting in the air), and the Belarusian border guards immediately announced that the Poles were shooting.
Migrants pitch their tents right next to the Polish border fence. Why they can all be in the Belarusian border territories is a mystery.
Somewhere they destroyed part of the barbed wire fence, and when the Polish military closed it with a human shield, they began to chant: "Germany!" This is to the question of the purpose of this whole event..."
Journalist Dmitry Kolezev is sure that Lukashenka arranged this situation in agreement with Moscow:
“It seems to me a rather realistic version that Lukashenka is arranging this whole orgy with refugees on the border with Poland in agreement with the Kremlin, so that the frightened Europeans would beg Putin to calm down the Belarusian dictator. Who else will Lukashenka listen to besides Putin? And he will help the Europeans to resolve the crisis and will be a little better in their eyes than before. That is, how it will actually be, it is not known, for a plan, perhaps such.
In general, Putin is convenient for Lukashenka as a scarecrow for both external and internal audiences. Against the background of Lukashenka, both Western countries and their own citizens may seem like Putin not so much an autocrat, not so much a tyrant, but almost even a European..."
And journalist Anastasia Mironova, who once lived in Poland, is perplexed:
“I still can't understand the main thing: why are these refugees rushing to Poland? Indeed, according to European laws, they will have to stay in the country through which they entered the EU, no quotas work, Germany will send them to Poland. And to live as an Arab or an Afghan in Poland ... Dismiss, this is not a pleasant business. Poland is an extremely xenophobic, mono-national country, there are almost no blacks, even African princes are reluctant to go to Poland to study. Poles even in London establish their own order and openly bully blacks, Arabs, imitate them. From where the Poles live, all non-Europeans leave. I lived among Poles, I was married to a Pole, I spent a lot of time hanging out around Poland as a man in the street. If I were Syrians and Afghans, I would have thought of penetrating Europe in some other place..."