June 24, Pozirk. Alaksandar Valfovič, state secretary of Belarus’ Security Council, denied accusations that Minsk is “pushing migrants to inflict some damage, primarily on the Polish side” in an interview broadcast by Belarus 1.
“The Belarusian side is not taking any steps. We protect our border,” he said. However, the state television channel did not ask and he did comment why third-country foreigners arrive in the border area and stay there unhindered and why Belarusian border guards do not interfere with their attempts to force their entry into neighboring countries.
Valfovič denied a surge in migrant traffic and accused Belarus’ western neighbors of “stirring up tensions” as part of what he called shortsighted policy.
Earlier, Belarusian border guards have repeatedly accused their European counterparts of mistreating migrants.
Poland and Baltic states perceive the ongoing migration crisis at the Belarusian-EU border as a “hybrid attack,” orchestrated by Alaksandar Łukašenka and Vladimir Putin.
On June 6, Warsaw reported the death of Mateusz Sitek, a private of the 1st Warsaw Armored Brigade stabbed at the border with Belarus on May 28.
The soldier was reportedly attacked by a person trying to cross the border illegally with a large group of migrants.
A week later, Poland enacted a 90-day border area entry ban at shared border with Belarus, cutting illegal crossing attempts by 30 percent.
Since the start of 2024, the EU has thwarted about 22,200 illegal border crossings on its shared border with Belarus, with 19,500 attempts via Poland alone.
Poland considers closing all crossing with Belarus in response to a surge in illegal migration, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said last week.
