Pressure is building to address the plight of hundreds of migrants, mainly Kurds from the Middle East, who are stranded at the Belarus-Poland border in cold weather.
powerful leader of belarus Alexander Lukashenko vowed on Thursday to respond to any new restrictions imposed on migrant crisis at the country’s border With Poland, including potentially stopping the transit of natural gas to Europe.
“If they impose additional sanctions on us … we must respond,” Mr. Lukashenko said in comments issued by the president to officials.
“We are heating Europe, and they are threatening us,” he said, adding that Russia’s Yamal-Europe gas pipeline runs from Belarus to Poland.
pressure to address plight of hundreds of migrants, mainly Kurds from the Middle East, who are stuck on the Belarus-Poland border in cold weather.
The UN Security Council was to meet on Thursday for emergency talks on the crisis following international appeals to deal with the plight of refugees.
The West accused Mr Lukashenko of luring migrants to Belarus to avenge sanctions imposed last year after a massive crackdown on the opposition.
EU officials say they expect to approve new restrictions on the migrant crisis next week.
“We are in a position in which the proper outcome (for Minsk) is overdue. This is what we want with our European partners,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Thursday.
‘New Kind of War’
Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Meki said Minsk wanted the crisis to be “resolved as soon as possible” and was ready to talk to the EU, but the bloc was refusing to negotiate.
Poland has deployed 15,000 troops to the border, erected a fence with barbed wire and approved the construction of a wall along the border with Belarus.
In a statement issued for Poland’s Independence Day on Thursday, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his country was facing a “new kind of war” whose “ammunition is civilian”.
Poland accused Belarus of forcing migrants to cross the border and refusing to allow them to leave the border areas.
Belarus, in turn, has accused Poland of violating international norms by blocking migrants and violently beating them up.
Migrants have been trying to cross the border for months, but the crisis unfolded when hundreds of people made a concerted effort on Monday and were pushed back by Polish border guards.
They set up a camp on the border, sheltered in tents and, to keep warm, burning wood from local forests, blocked behind razor-wire by Polish guards. Belarus says about 2,000 people are living in the camp.
Migrants are making sporadic attempts to cross the border, with border guards reporting 468 attempts overnight on Thursday.
fear in the Polish city
Residents of the Polish town of Sokolka near the border said they were concerned by rising tensions but supported the Polish government’s tough stance.
Thousands of migrants have crossed into or attempted to cross from Belarus into eastern EU member states Latvia and Lithuania in recent months.
European leaders have been putting pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, a main supporter of Mr. Lukashenko.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Mr Putin on Wednesday to ask him to “use his influence” to stop the “inhumane” means of transporting migrants.
Poland has accused Mr Putin of masterminding the crisis, a claim the Kremlin has dismissed as “irresponsible”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday accused the West of running an “anti-Belarusian campaign” and said Russia and Belarus have “closely coordinated our approaches” to counter it.
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