Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz on Friday said the country must remain tough amid the migrant pressure on the Belarus border as the Russian-Belarusian exercises, Zapad-2021, were due to get under way.
Przydacz told public broadcaster Polish Radio that Poland had the support of the European Union and its executive arm, the European Commission, as it worked to deal with the border crisis.
Marcin Przydacz. Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara
Since the beginning of August, Poland's border service has recorded over 4,000 illegal attempts to cross from Belarus, detaining around 1,000 migrants, Polish Radio's IAR news agency reported.
In the same period last year, Polish border guards made no detentions, reporters have been told.
Polish officials have said the latest wave of migrants is part of a "hybrid war" being waged against the EU by Belarus.
Polish Deputy Defence Minister Wojciech Skurkiewicz told Polish Radio on Friday that the border crisis could be made even more difficult by the Russian-Belarusian military exercises across the Polish border.
Wojciech Skurkiewicz. Photo: Wojciech Kusiński/Polish Radio
The seven-day Zapad-2021 maneuvres are thought to be the biggest in Europe in the past 40 years, featuring up to 200,000 soldiers, 290 tanks and 15 ships, as well as 80 aircraft and helicopters, the IAR news agency reported.
Some of the training is set to take place just 3 kilometres from the Polish border.
NATO and the EU have called on Moscow and Minsk to maintain transparency and comply with international obligations.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR