The migrant crisis at the border between Belarus and Poland has become more serious each day with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko now threatening Europe with eliminating gas resources.
Lukashenko reportedly told Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko that if Europe creates new sanctions, “you must not forgive them anything.”
“We are warning Europe, and yet they threaten to close the border,” Lukashenko said, per the Belarusian state news source, as reported by The New York Times. “What if we close off the natural gas headed there? I would recommend the leadership of Poland, the Lithuanians and other brainless people to think before they speak.”
The Washington Post reported:
Europe relies on Russia for most of its natural gas supplies through pipelines such as Nord Stream 1 via the Baltic Sea, TurkStream and Blue Stream via Turkey and the Yamal-Europe pipeline via Belarus and Poland to Germany.
A controversial new pipeline Nord Stream 2, opposed by Ukraine and criticized by the United States, is undergoing a regulatory approval process in Germany, with Russia pressing Europe to speed the process.
Europe relies on Russia for about 35 percent of its natural gas. The 1,242 mile Yamal-Europe pipeline has an annual capacity of 32.9 billion cubic meters, according to Russian gas giant Gazprom, compared to 31 billion cubic meters for TurkStream and 16 billion cubic meters for Blue Stream. The capacity of Nord Stream 1 is 55 billion cubic meters, and Nord Stream 2 will double that.
The border crisis has been escalating since earlier this year when Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland experienced an influx of migrants.
The European Union has blamed Lukashenko for orchestrating the new crisis in order to create an issue at the Polish border in retribution for the European Union’s sanctions on Belarus earlier this year.
Authorities have said that eight people died due to the conditions on the border, but the number reportedly could be far steeper. As the situation is prolonged, the humanitarian crisis worsens.
The Times reported:
In a statement posted Thursday on Facebook, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland compared events on Thursday to those that cost Poland its statehood more than a century ago. While stressing that the situation now “is not so dramatic,” he said: “What we are dealing with is a new type of war. This is a war in which civilians and media messages are the ammunition.”
Polish border officials said Thursday that 150 migrants had attempted to get through the border from Belarus in a large group during the night, and authorities reportedly cautioned of a potential effort to “storm” the boundary Thursday night due to the Independence Day affairs that were depleting security forces in Poland.
As The Daily Wire reported earlier this week, “On Tuesday, Lithuania declared a state of emergency on its border with Belarus, while Poland also reacted to the thousands of migrants who have flocked to the border between Belarus and Poland.”
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, said at the time: “The Belarusian regime is attacking the Polish border, the EU, in an unparalleled manner. We currently have a camp of migrants who are blocked from the Belarusian side. These are aggressive actions that we must repel, fulfilling our obligations as a member of the European Union.”
The role of Russia is also being heavily discussed.
“Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused Putin of orchestrating the flow of migrants trying to illegally enter Poland from Belarus, saying to an emergency session of the Polish parliament, ‘This attack which [Belarus President Alexander] Lukashenko is conducting has its mastermind in Moscow, the mastermind is President Putin,’ The Times of Israel noted,” The Daily Wire reported.
Several countries placed sanctions on Belarus over the claims of fraud in Lukashenko’s 2020 election. Additional sanctions were put on the country after Lukashenko reportedly grounded a civilian plane earlier this year in order to have a dissident journalist arrested.
As The Daily Wire reported in May, “a Ryanair commercial aircraft was suddenly diverted and forced to land as it began its descent into Vilnius, Lithuania. The passengers, having been given no explanation from the pilot or crew, were left panicked and terrified as the plane changed course.”