Lukashenko: renewed contacts with Poland to calm tensions at the border

  Aiming to calm tensions on Belarus' border with neighboring Poland, Minsk head of state Alexander Lukashenko said he was ready to talk to Warsaw. "We have to talk to the Poles." Lukashenko added. "I have ordered the prime minister to contact them," Lukashenko said, according to state news agency Belta. "We are neighbors and you don't choose your neighbors". Poland will send up to 10,000 additional soldiers to the border with Belarus to strengthen the Border Guard: Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said today in a radio interview publish. The Reuters news agency reports it on its website. "Around 10,000 soldiers will be at the border, of which 4,000 will directly support the Border Guard and 6,000 will be in reserve," the minister said.

"We bring the army closer to the Belarusian border to scare the aggressor so that he doesn't dare to attack us," he added. In addition to the regional rivalry linked to the opposing alliances of the two countries, now the diplomatic crisis between Poland and Belarus risks becoming a new hot front linked to the war in Ukraine. After Warsaw's accusations of violation of the national airspace by two Minsk helicopters, a version denied by the government of Aleksander Lukashenko has decided to summon the Polish ambassador in Minsk, Martin Wojciechowski, asking him to deny the allegations following " a comprehensive check carried out by the Belarusian side”. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry also stressed that "the easing of the already complicated situation in bilateral relations is possible only in the context of a mutually respectful and constructive dialogue", reads a statement. Meanwhile, however, Poland has strengthened the presence of its military on the border.

Yesterday Belarus again denied that two of its helicopters violated Poland's airspace last Monday: “Yesterday, Poland's charge d'affaires visited our Foreign Ministry. He was shown everything and given the most detailed explanations based on objective monitoring data. There was no diversion into Polish territory. There was simply no such incident,” Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz said. "Minsk - it adds - believes that the Polish military and political leadership is simply looking for an excuse to increase its troops near the Belarusian border". And that is what Warsaw has just announced, justifying the risk decision of Russian and Belarusian "provocations" on its eastern border. "If it is justified, the soldiers will use their weapons," said Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, after the case of the two Minsk helicopters that allegedly trespassed on Tuesday.

While Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, receiving the Lithuanian president, spoke of "destabilizing operations that will increase further": "Russia and Belarus are increasing the pressure on the border, the number of their provocations and we must be aware of the fact that they will increase further", he said the prime minister. "These operations consist of destabilizing, sowing doubts, chaos, uncertainty and, at the same time, demonstrating the weakness of NATO's eastern flank to all our partners," he added. It is not the first case of clash between the two countries in recent weeks. Warsaw had also reported that a large number of members of Yevgeny Prigozhin's private Wagner company were heading towards the Suwałki Corridor, on the border between Poland, Lithuania and Belarus.