MINSK, December 20. /TASS/. Belarusian Security Council State Secretary Alexander Volfovich said that the Ukrainian side is trying to stir up trouble on the Belarusian border.
"The Ukrainian side continues to install fortifications on the southern border [with Belarus], as well as to mine its territory," Volfovich said in an interview with the National Defense journal. "At the same time, there are planned and spontaneous provocations involving destruction and damage to the Belarusian border infrastructure, insults and emotional abuse on the Belarusian border guards," the top security official pointed out.
According to him, in general, the Belarusian Border Guard Service records various kinds of provocations from neighboring countries almost every day. In particular, he pointed to drones flying over the territory of Belarus. "Recently, incidents of Polish helicopters crossing the border have intensified," he recalled. "In September, they twice flew into the territory of Belarus up to two kilometers deep," he said.
Volfovich also drew attention to the "egocentric migration policy of Poland and the Baltic states, which has led to unprecedented violence against migrants at the border." "Last year, the Belarusian side stopped over 3,000 attempts to illegally transfer refugees from the territories of neighboring states to our territory," he said. "To date, the Belarusian border service has documented more than 40 cases of refugees dying as a result of mistreatment by Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian border guards," the top security official noted.
According to him, after putting up a number of barriers, further measures are being taken to block the border. "In response to Belarus' extension of the visa-free regime to citizens of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, the governments of these countries have unilaterally imposed restrictions on passenger and cargo traffic through joint checkpoints this year," Volfovich said.