Poland’s border crisis with Belarus continues to grow, with the Polish Border Guard stopping 473 attempts to cross the border on Tuesday, which was the highest number of attempts since the crisis began. According to Border Guard spokeswoman lieutenant Anna Michalska, the strain is leading to an extremely high workload for border officers.
Meanwhile, Minister of Defense Mariusz Błaszczak informed of provocations directed at Polish soldiers taking place from the Belarusian side.
“Polish soldiers are being provoked. Shots are fired into the air, guns are aimed at Polish soldiers, firecrackers are being thrown at them and ammunition is reloaded in a way that Polish soldiers will see it,” he said.
This information was confirmed by Franak Viacorka, a Belarusian opposition journalist and advisor to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. According to his reports, the situation on the border is dire.
According to Polish Border Guard, the Belarusian services gave military style uniforms to some foreigners.
Since the start of September 2021, the Border Guard recorded close to 6,000 illegal attempts to cross the border from Belarus. Polish officers also detained 116 people who tried to organize illegal transits.
On Sept. 2, 2021, the Polish government introduced a state of emergency on the border strip within the Podlaskie and Lubelskie regions. The state of emergency is likely to be extended for another 60 days.
On Wednesday evening, President’s Andrzej Duda’s chancellery announced that the president has signed and directed a motion to the speaker of the Sejm for parliament to grant permission to extend the state of emergency by 60 days. Earlier, the Council of Ministers turned to the president to extend the state of emergency.
