Over the weekend, Latvia, a member of the European Union (EU), deployed 3,000 troops in unannounced military exercises near the border with Belarus, exacerbating the migrant crisis along the Belarusian-Polish border.
The European Union plans to extend sanctions against Belarus over Western allegations, which it condemned on Monday as “ridiculous” https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-step-up-sanctions-belarus-over-escalating-border – Crisis-11-15-2021, they are managing a crisis that has resulted in up to 4,000 migrants trapped in frozen forests near the Polish border.
European leaders have accused Belarus of “hybrid” attacks by taking migrants from countries such as Syria and Afghanistan and forcing them to cross the EU into Poland illegally. Belarus has repeatedly denied the allegation.
“We cannot rule out that part of these (migrant) groups will move north and could reach the Latvian border. We are ready for that, ”Minister of Defense Artis Pabriks told the national radio station.
He added that the message to Belarus is that the Latvian army movement “is not just for fun”.
Army spokeswoman Sandra Brāla told the BNS news agency. It did not respond to reports from Reuters on Monday, asking for further comments.
Polish border guards have so far reported 5,100 attempted illegal crossings from Belarus in November, compared with 120 in 2020 as a whole. Comparable figures have also increased in Latvia and Lithuania, in the Baltic States bordering Belarus.
Poland and Lithuania also strengthened their borders with military forces, and three countries secured part of their borders with Belarus with a barbed wire fence.
(Report by Andrios Setas in Vilnius; edited by Mark Heinrich)
–
–
