Tensions Between Belarus and Poland: Warsaw Closes Border Checkpoint, Minsk Hits Abet

Moscow-allied Belarus acknowledged Friday it used to be limiting fetch entry to for Polish autos on its territory and launched the expulsion of a liaison officer following Warsaw’s decision to whole a border crossing.

The foreign ministry in Minsk summoned Poland’s fee d’affaires to condemn Warsaw’s decision to whole one in every of its three existing border crossings with Belarus as “unilateral” and “inhumane”.

In response, Polish items autos will now most productive be ready to enter and leave Belarus thru crossings on their long-established border, and no longer via third nations Lithuania and Latvia.

“All responsibility for the deterioration of the must haves for the operations of their carriers lies with the initiator of the restrictive measures, that is the recent authorities of Poland,” acknowledged a ministry assertion.

Minsk also acknowledged it would cut staffing at Poland’s consulate in Grodno to match workers numbers within the Belarusian consulate in Polish Bialystok, evoking a future expulsion of diplomats.

“The Belarusian facet also would no longer glance the point of the endured presence on its territory of a liaison officer for the Polish Border Guard,” the ministry acknowledged.

They reserved the upright “to hold extra severe retaliatory steps”, the assertion added.

Polish Internal Minister Mariusz Kaminski later tweeted: “If Belarusian authorities trip forward and implement the launched restrictions against Polish carriers, Poland will retort in kind referring to Belarusian carriers.”

Poland acknowledged ultimate week it used to be closing the Bobrowniki border checkpoint for causes of “suppose security”, as tensions soared between the 2 neighbours.

That decision came a day after a Belarusian court sentenced Polish-Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut to eight years in detention heart over his severe reporting on the Minsk regime.

President Alexander Lukashenko hosted a rare assembly with the foreign press Thursday, one day of which AFP requested him about Poczobut’s case as successfully as others who’re in detention heart after criticising the longtime chief.

“Once you happen to would per chance well perhaps also very successfully be guilty, then you will abet,” he acknowledged, denying the existence of political prisoners in his nation.

“There would possibly perhaps be no longer this kind of thing as a politics in this in any recognize.”

Lukashenko suppressed unprecedented protests against his rule in 2020.

Belarus is a finish ally of Russia and allowed Moscow’s troops to open their offensive in Ukraine via Belarusian territory.

Poland is a key backer of Kyiv.

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