Illustrative photo from open sources
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland on Thursday, June 6, summoned the charge d'affaires of Belarus after an incident on the border that resulted in the death of a Polish soldier. Warsaw said it had handed a Belarusian diplomat a note of protest demanding that Minsk stop provocations on the border, reports Agence France-Presse.
Last week, a soldier patrolling the Polish side of the border was stabbed through a five-meter metal fence. A few days later, the soldier died from his injuries at the Military Medical Institute in Warsaw.
The Polish Foreign Ministry demanded to “stop provocations on the Polish-Belarusian border and the organization of the movement of migrants.” The ministry also called on Belarus to “identify and extradite a suspect in the murder of a Polish citizen.”
Last week, the Polish army also reported two other attacks on the border: one soldier was wounded by a knife attached to a stick, and another received "facial injuries" as a result of being hit by a broken bottle.
According to the Polish border agency, more than 17,000 attempts to illegally cross the border from Belarus have been detected this year.
Last month, Warsaw said it would spend more than $2.5 billion to strengthen its eastern border, which it says Russia is seeking to destabilize with hybrid attacks.
"It is the Russian state… that is behind the recruitment, transportation and attempts to smuggle thousands of people into Europe" – said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. He emphasized that more than 90 percent of migrants seeking to cross the Polish border have Russian visas.
Prepared by: Sergei Daga