According to Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, migrants arriving in Poland from Belarus are “instructed by the Minsk government on how to beat soldiers and border guards when they are not wearing bulletproof vests“. In such a nasty war climate, this is why Warsaw is seriously considering closing the border.

Poland faces an increasing influx of refugees trying to reach EU countries via Belarus. In November 2021, the EU Council revealed that the Belarusian armed forces were escorting several groups of asylum seekers to the borders of neighboring countries to force irregular entry. According to data provided by Deutsche Welle, in Poland, from 2021 to date, about 100 thousand attempts to cross the border irregularly by migrants attempting to reach the country from Belarus have been recorded.

In addition to Poland, there has been an influx of refugees from Latvia and Lithuania. Poland, however, is still the country under the most pressure, with more than 400 irregular migration attempts by refugees attempting to head to Germany and the UK in the first five months of 2024.

Sikorski believes that the flows of irregular migrants are managed by the Russian and Belarusian services, which would be primarily responsible for the attacks on the Polish military, “a serious and unacceptable thing”. Hence the possibility of closing and guarding the 418 kilometers of border with Belarus.

On the other hand, the Polish authorities’ plan was not welcomed by Minsk. The leader of the Belarusian opposition in exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, called on Donald Tusk’s government to desist, arguing that “keeping Belarusians connected to Europe is crucial“.