November 14, Pozirk. Poland is preparing to reopen two checkpoints at its border with Belarus in Bobrowniki and Kuźnica on November 17, PAP reported, citing a draft resolution by the Polish interior ministry dated November 13.
The move is expected to be part of a deal that will see Belarus release some political prisoners, including ethnic Poles.
The draft resolution calls for a partial reopening, with the checkpoint in Kuźnica handling only passenger car traffic, not buses.
Bobrowniki will handle passenger traffic, including buses, and process some cargo traffic. The latter will be restricted to trucks registered in the European Union, the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
The resolution still has to be approved by the interior minister.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the move on October 28, just weeks after Poland shut its border completely, accusing Belarus of being a source of hybrid threats. Later, Warsaw postponed the reopening in solidarity with Lithuania, which closed its border with Belarus in late October over frequent incursions by cigarette-smuggling balloons.
“If it turns out for any reason that the border needs to be closed, I will not hesitate for a moment,” Tusk said, linking such a reaction to potential security concerns.
Currently, Poland operates only the Terespol-Brest checkpoint for passenger traffic and the Kukuryki-Kazłovičy for cargoes in addition to three railway crossings handling international cargoes.
The Bobrowniki crossing has remained closed since February 2023. Warsaw made its reopening conditional on the release of Polish minority activist Andrzej Poczobut, sentenced in Belarus to eight years in prison in a case widely regarded as politically motivated. Kuźnica was closed in 2021 over the irregular migration crisis, which Warsaw regards as a hybrid attack by Minsk.
Belarusians wishing to enter the European Union are now limited to two border crossings — Brest in the Polish direction and Hryharoŭščyna, located on the border with Latvia.
