Belarus: Lukashenko says Polish troops on border ‘training or blackmail’ amid migrant standoff

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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Polish military deployments are “some kind of a training or blackmail” amid the standoff between migrants seeking to enter the EU and border security forces, speaking in Minsk on Tuesday.

According to Lukashenko, Minsk “calmly resists challenges” on the border and was not trying to provoke anyone.

“We know if we, God forbid, make any mistake, if we stumble, then it will immediately draw Russia into this vortex. And this is the largest nuclear power, I’m not madman, I perfectly understand what this can lead to,” he added.

On Monday Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced on Twitter that Warsaw had increased the number of troops on the border with Belarus to 12,000.

Tensions between the EU and Belarus have been escalating in recent months, with the bloc accusing Lukashenko of deliberately sending migrants over the border in response to sanctions imposed by the EU.

Germany and Poland strengthened joint border patrols on the frontier with Belarus on October 20 and put up a barbed-wire fence in place in an attempt to stem the illegal flow.

SOUNDBITES:

SOT, Alexander Lukashenko, Belarusian President (Russian): “Taking up arms in the modern world is deathlike. This is suicide. Do you agree? It’s suicide. Especially here in the middle of Europe. And even more with Belarus. Because all wars were here, on this land, from here everything had been started. Well, history teaches nothing. Therefore, to fight against migrants with Leopard tanks nowadays… Well, you will excuse me. We are both military people, and we understand what it’s like to wage war with these unfortunate people on the Belarus-Poland border today and to put forward columns of tanks. Clearly, it’s some kind of training or blackmail. Of course, we calmly resist these challenges. We don’t bully or write, like some people in Russia and Belarusians there, because we know if we, God forbid, make any mistake, if we stumble, then it will immediately draw Russia into this vortex. And this is the largest nuclear power, I’m not a madman, I perfectly understand what this can lead to. Therefore, there is no heroism here, like you grab a machine gun and go to the Poland border, where I once served as a border guard. No way. We know our place, we know our place, but we will not get on our knees.”

#Belarus #Poland #migrants

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