Photo: Artur Reszko/PAP
Poland returns the 200-meter buffer zone and sends special forces to the border with Belarus. Warsaw also does not exclude the possibility of strengthening the border with minefields.
The return of the 200-meter buffer zone was announced by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, visiting the location of Polish border guards in the village of Dubicze Cerkiewne near Belaviezhskaya Pushcha.
The visit to the border and new solutions are associated with a recent incident when a migrant seriously wounded a Polish soldier with a knife from behind a fence on the border with Belarus. Calling the attack “bandit”, the head of the Polish Defense Ministry noted that the situation “is becoming more complicated every day, this is an organized action by the Belarusian services.”
According to him, there are now 5.5 thousand soldiers on the border, in addition, “the most experienced commandos” were recently deployed. Police forces will also be more actively involved in areas where mass breakthroughs are being attempted.
Meanwhile, it became known that the wounded Polish soldier, who first went to the Gaynov hospital and underwent a surgical operation, will presumably be transported to Warsaw. “The worst is already behind him,” the doctors say.
According to Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak, thousands of people are gathering in Russia to attack the Polish border. He noted that the situation on the Belarusian-Polish border is becoming increasingly tense.
“This aggression is increasing. It started with throwing stones, and now we have an escalation. In these events of recent days, two border guards have also been injured in the last few dozen hours. Fortunately, their condition is better than the soldier who was stabbed. However, this situation is constantly escalating,” the minister said.
In turn, the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army, Wieslaw Kukula, said at a press conference in Warsaw that Poland allows the strengthening of the border with Belarus with minefields. According to him, mining the border is possible only if Warsaw is “absolutely sure that war is inevitable.”