June 4, Pozirk. A Polish border guard wounded yesterday at the border with Belarus remains in serious condition after being diagnosed with a fractured skull and may lose an eye, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna reported.
The incident occurred on Monday near the Białowieża forest. “A group of aggressive people” attacked the border patrol officer with a tree branch, the Polish Border Guard said.
In late May, Polish authorities reported two similar incidents involving third-country migrants trying to cross from Belarus into the European Union.
The migration crisis at the Belarusian-EU border started in spring 2021 after Alaksandar Łukašenka, angered by EU sanctions, had indicated that Minsk would not prevent migrants from Africa and Asia from using Belarus as a route to the EU.
The Baltic states and Poland accused Belarusian authorities of creating the trouble, while the latter blamed it on the West.
Since the start of 2024, the EU has thwarted more than 19,000 illegal border crossings on its shared border with Belarus, with at least 16,870 attempts via Poland alone.
Illegal border crossings picked up pace in February, reaching a record high in May, rising 22 percent year on year.
