Poland will close its eastern border to commercial vehicles registered in Belarus and Russia until further notice. This is stated in the draft resolution, published on Friday by the Ministry of the Interior of Poland. According to the rationale for the decision, the ban is necessary to “ensure public safety”.
The Polish authorities took this step against the backdrop of a general deterioration in Polish-Belarusian relations.
Earlier, a Belarusian court upheld the sentence of Andrzej Poczobut, a Belarusian activist and journalist, an ethnic Pole, sentenced on February 8 to eight years in prison under articles on “incitement to hatred” and ” calling for actions aimed at undermining national security”. .”
Although Friday’s border ruling did not mention the Poczobut case, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminsky tweeted that in response to Poczobut’s draconian condemnation, Poland would add several hundred Belarusian officials to the list. Sanctions.
Previously, Poland had already closed some border crossings with Belarus after Poczobut’s imprisonment and the expulsion of Polish diplomats from Minsk.
Poland has become a refuge for many political opponents of the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, as well as for Belarusian activists and journalists. Warsaw has also been one of Kyiv’s most important partners since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine .
Poland also accuses Belarus of artificially creating a migration crisis on the border, bringing people from the Middle East and Africa and trying to force them across the border. Although the number of migrants crossing the border is lower than it was at the height of the migrant crisis in 2021, the Polish border guard daily reports dozens of attempts to illegally enter Poland from Belarus.
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