President Alexander Lukashenko said Belarus does not want to confront Poland.
Bruzgi:
President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday said Belarus does not want to confront Poland but wants the European Union to take in the 2,000 migrants stranded at its border, and he added that if the crisis worsens “too much far away, war is inevitable”.
The European Union accuses Belarus of flying with thousands of people from the Middle East and pushing them to the EU via Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in retaliation for EU sanctions on Minsk due to Lukashenko’s break up of anti-government protests. for his re-election last year. .
Mr. Lukashenko denied causing the migrant crisis, but EU countries including Germany on Monday again rejected his call for them to accept migrants in limbo. border.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Sunday said the crisis could be a prelude to “something much worse”, and Poland’s border guards said Belarusian forces were still transporting the dead. migrants to the border.
Lukashenko, quoted by state news agency Belta, said he did not want things to escalate.
“We need to get across Poland, to every Pole, and show them that we’re not barbarians, that we don’t want confrontation. We don’t need it. Because we understand that if we go too far, war is inevitable,” he said.
“And that would be a disaster. We totally understand this. We don’t want any kind of outbreak.”
Unacceptable
The plan proposed by Belarus last week will attract about 2,000 migrants, especially Germany, Minsk will bring back another 5,000 migrants and Lukashenko said Belarus is preparing a second repatriation flight at the end of the month. this.
In the face of opposition from Germany and the EU’s executive committee, on Monday Mr Lukashenko said he had to stress that Germany – the preferred destination for many migrants – receives some of them. He said the EU is not engaged with Minsk on this issue.
“They didn’t even look at it (the problem). And even what she (German Chancellor Angela Merkel) promised me – contacts. They don’t even communicate with each other.”
But a German government spokesman echoed Berlin’s refusal.
“The idea of having a humanitarian corridor to Germany for 2,000 migrants is not an acceptable solution for Germany or the EU,” the spokesman said.
Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg told a news conference: “The EU must not give in to the extortion of Lukashenko. We must respond in a unified and very clear way to the state-sponsored hybrid attack. This is aimed at the European Union.”
A group of about 150 migrants tried to cross the border fence near the Polish village of Dubicze Cerkiewne on Sunday, Polish border guards said.
Threats to cut train links
Poland has threatened to sever a ship link with Belarus if the situation does not improve and Lukashenko is quoted as saying the threat could backfire.
Railway traffic could be diverted to run through the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine in such a scenario, he said.
“It was Lukashenko and the Belarusian regime that caused the whole problem on the border … What happens next is up to Mr. Lukashenko,” said Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz. “The EU … can find a way to trade with its Eastern European and Asian partners without going to Belarus.”
The Polish Institute of Economics (PIE) said any border closures for the movement of goods would be more costly for Belarus as exports account for 70% of the country’s gross domestic product.
A Polish government spokesman said no decision had been made on the closure, although that choice had been made.
Humanitarian agencies say as many as 13 migrants have died at the border, where many suffer in a cold, wet jungle with little food or water as the cold winter hits.
Poland says Belarusian forces are still transporting migrants to the border, despite clearing the main migrant camps along the barbed-wire fence last week. Many of the migrants have now been placed in a Belarusian warehouse near the border.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from the feed provided.)
