MINSK, November 12. /TASS/. Poland and other NATO countries bordering Belarus have been beefing up their military presence at the borders of the republic, and want to unleash a conflict by dragging Europe into it, Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said in a statement on Friday.
"It seems that our Western neighbors, in particular Poland, are ready to unleash a conflict in which they want to involve Europe as part of solving their domestic political problems, as well as problems within the European Union," the minister said.
He pointed out that the military activity taking place in the immediate vicinity of the Belarusian borders has nothing to do with the migration crisis in its scale. "We have registered military activity in the Grodno direction near the Belarusian border, the [military] group of over 15,000 personnel has been stationed on its western borders," the minister specified.
It includes units and two territorial defense brigades. The deployment of the 16th Mechanized Division of the Polish Armed Forces in the area of the village of Kuznica has been noticed. "Air defense systems are also involved, a group of special operations forces have been deployed, a base has been prepared for beefing up forces in this direction," the minister listed. For this purpose, 12 field camps have been created to accommodate military personnel and equipment.
The Defense minister also said that military activity has been recorded in the Belarusian-Lithuanian direction. "Cooperation with Russia via intelligence agencies confirms our conclusions," Khrenin added.
The migrant crisis on the Belarusian border with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland where the migrants have been flocking since the beginning of the year, sharply aggravated on November 8. Several thousand people approached the Polish border from Belarus and refused to leave the area. Some of them attempted to enter Poland by destroying a barbed-wire fence. EU countries have accused Minsk of the intentional escalation of the crisis and have called for sanctions. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated that the Western countries themselves were to blame for the situation since people were fleeing the war in their homelands because of the West’s actions.