Border police have been blinded with lasers and strobe lights as they struggle to shore up Europe’s eastern frontier defences against the flow of migrants unleashed by Belarus.
Polish authorities say soldiers loyal to Alexander Lukashenko, the despotic ruler of the former Soviet republic, have been arming refugees with tear gas as he steps up his so-called ‘hybrid war’ on Europe.
On Friday, the latest flare-up in the crisis began when troops from Belarus tore down the posts near the barbed wire barriers the Polish government had installed 120 miles along the border of the two countries. The barrier runs for 250 miles.
The video shows border guards being targeted with strong lasers and bright flash lighting. The Polish Border Force spokesperson said that about 100 migrants were equipped with tear gas. It was also used against their guards.
Pictured is an image of a clip in which a green laser beam shines through a wire barbed fence
Lukashenko told a defence magazine yesterday he wanted to deploy Russian Iskander missile systems – which have a range of 300 miles and can carry conventional or nuclear warheads
The soldiers at the border shining the lights were carrying out the orders of their Minsk dictator leader Alexander Lukashenko (pictured on Friday in Minsk) to help migrants across the border to destabilise the EU
Videos have also shown Belarusian officials with wire-cutters and handing out tools to refugees to destroy fencing as they encourage the mass migration into the EU in revenge for Brussels’ support of the Minsk dictatorship’s critics.
A new illegal incursion occurred as countries bordering Belarus discussed the possibility of deploying a seldom invoked Nato article to prompt a united response from all the signatories.
The treaty – underpinning Western security – means an attack against one ally is considered an attack against all allies.
Consideration of such a move demonstrates how worried neighbouring states are by Belarus’s belligerence.
Donald Tusk, the Polish former EU president, has called for Nato to invoke Article Four, while Lithuania’s National Defence Council met to agree on the criteria for seeking a unified Nato response to the border threat.
Lukashenko, who has ruled his country for 30 years and is Europe’s last dictator, has lured thousands of migrants to his country with visas and specially arranged flights.
The EU sends them onwards in retaliation to sanctions last year imposed by his crackdown against protests.
EU condemned air piracy and barred Belarusian aircraft from its skies. It also reduced imports for several important commodities like petroleum products and fertiliser potash.
As the Polish government installed barbed-wire barriers along 120 miles (of the 250-mile border) between their two countries, the latest crisis flared on Friday night.
Moscow denied orchestrating the Belarusian policy. Yesterday, Putin said: ‘We have nothing to do with it.’ He blamed the West for the crisis, saying its policies in the Middle East were the reason migrants wanted to flee and go to Europe.
But Lukashenko told a defence magazine yesterday he wanted to deploy Russian Iskander missile systems – which have a range of 300 miles and can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.
Meanwhile, hundreds of migrants, reported to be mainly Kurds, are sheltering in freezing conditions in a militarised no-man’s zone on the border between Belarus and both Poland and Lithuania, which refuse to let them into their countries. According to Belarus, there are approximately 2,000 people living in the rapidly expanding camp at the Polish border. This includes pregnant women and their children. Poland claims that there are twice as many, and more people arrive every day.
Warsaw stated that there had been 219 illegal attempts to cross the Polish-Belarusian frontier on Friday. Last month, they logged 16,800 such efforts – four times more each day than for the whole of last year.
Poland yesterday confirmed the discovery of the corpse of a young Syrian near its border. This is the eleventh death confirmed since the outbreak in crisis this summer.
As the winter weather gets worse, there are concerns that the number of deaths will increase.
Over recent weeks, I met such human pawns, hiding from Polish border forces in Europe’s last primeval forest. They’re desperate.
A camp with Belarusian military servicemen and migrants at the border between Belarusian and Polish borders, surrounded by fences and barbed wire.
‘There is no future in Syria,’ said one middle-aged man. ‘We have lost track of who is fighting who in our country. There are no jobs, no schools for our children, no hospitals for our families… no hope or future.’
Most want to go to Germany – yet many have little idea they will most likely be bounced back and forth across the border or stuck for weeks in woods in freezing temperatures.
Lukashenko’s diplomatic isolation has entrenched him in the embrace of Russia, with Putin having long sought to tighten his control over Belarus and other former Soviet states.
Minsk, a diplomat from the West said that Moscow could invade Belarus if they saw the Lukashenko government at risk.
Certainly, Lukashenko’s hybrid attacks, weaponising migration to drive wedges between allies and inflame divisions across Europe, bear all the hallmarks of Putin’s malevolent ability to exploit volatile situations.
General Sir Nick Carter, chief of Britain’s defence staff, told Times Radio there was a greater risk of tensions in the new era of a ‘multipolar world’, and said authoritarian rivals were willing to use any tool at their disposal, such as migrants, gas prices, proxy forces or cyber attacks. ‘The character of warfare has changed,’ he said.
Following satellite images that showed thousands of troops at the border of Ukraine, US leaders warned European leaders earlier last week of Russia’s possible invasion.
The migrant crisis has also been a concern for President Joe Biden. ‘We communicated our concern to Russia, we communicated our concern to Belarus,’ he said. Poland and Ukraine sent thousands more troops to help reinforce their border posts. The Baltic states issued a joint statement from their defence ministers last week warning that the migrant crisis could ‘spill over into the military domain’. The following day, a squad of 250 Russian paratroopers carried out ‘snap’ exercises with Belarus forces just three miles from the Lithuanian border.
Grupa Granica has had to receive calls since January 1st from more than 1,000 refugee children who are stuck in forests.
Malak, 26, a 26-year-old Iraqi who is due to deliver her child in three weeks time, was one of the many people who successfully crossed into Poland. In the hopes of giving her three daughters a better future in Germany, she traveled with her husband.
They were stopped by Polish border guards in their first attempt to get into Poland.
Malak said they left Iraq as there was ‘no future there’, adding: ‘I would advise all those thinking of coming to do it.’
Europe does not want to hear this message.