On Monday night, another provocation from Belarusian services took place near the Polish-Belarusian border after Polish soldiers located three uniformed individuals armed with rifles 200 meters away from the border on Polish territory. After attempting to initiate contact, the individuals successfully returned to the Belarusian side. They did not possess identification on them.
Spokesperson of the Minister-Special Services Coordinator Stanisław Żaryn posted about the incident on social media.
As a result of the provocation, the Polish foreign ministry summoned the Belarusian charge d’affaires on Tuesday in connection with the incident.
General Roman Polko, the former deputy head of the National Security Bureau, emphasized in an interview for TVP Info that the situation was worrying and escalation was progressing.
“It is quite difficult to judge what such actions may portend. Provocations from Belarusian services have already taken place and this may be an element of those provocations or the actions of services which could have ventured too deep,” he explained, adding that special forces usually act in disguises.
“These were little green men,” he declared. The term refers back to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, in which Russian armed forces arrived in the country without any Russian flags or other identifying information, prompting descriptions of them as “little green men.”
Polko believes that the intruders most likely wanted to conduct deep reconnaissance and see how the Polish Border Guard would react to their activity. The general warned that the Belarusian government would most likely not hesitate to conduct even more controversial actions, and the situation could escalate with Belarusian forces threatening Polish officers on the border with weapons.
General Polko also emphasized that there was a lack of a decisive response from European and global organizations concerning the Belarusian government’s provocations.
“Lukashenko is mocking all of these organizations by making human trafficking more efficient and continuing various provocations,” he stated.
