BERLIN, November 12. /TASS/. The German government is holding talks with Moscow on the influx of illegal migrants into the European Union through Belarus and believes that Minsk is to be blamed for the crisis at the Polish border, German Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Andrea Sasse said at a briefing on Friday. 

"According to our information, the Minsk regime is actively in charge of illegal migrant trafficking. Certainly, we are negotiating this issue, with Russia among others," she said. "We are in touch with transit countries and air carriers concerning migrants’ transportation to Belarus," Sasse added.

In the meantime, Ulrike Demmer, deputy spokesperson for the German government, recalled that on Wednesday and Thursday, Acting Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the migration crisis with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said that the Belarusian authorities "take advantage of people for a hybrid attack on the EU." She confirmed that Merkel had asked Putin to exert influence over Minsk.

"In any case, from our point of view, the Russian president has the ability to exert influence on the situation, and we expect him to take appropriate steps," Demmer added.

Nevertheless, she did not answer the question of whether Merkel was prepared to follow Putin’s advice and enter into direct talks between the European Union and Belarus.

The migrant crisis escalated dramatically on November 8 at the border of Belarus with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, where migrants have been flocking to since the beginning of 2021. Several thousand people have approached the Polish border from Belarusian territory and are not leaving the border area. Some of them tried to storm into Poland by getting over the barbed wire fence. European Union nations have accused Minsk of deliberate escalation and called for sanctions. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Western states are to shoulder the blame for the crisis as their actions make people flee from war.