The Polish Minister of Defense warned that the crisis at the Belarusian border may last for several months, saying that migrants “attacked the Polish border” again at night.
In the escalation of the months-long stalemate on the eastern border of the European Union, the Polish military fired tear gas and deployed water cannons on people trying to cross the border on Tuesday.
Thousands of people, mainly from the Middle East, camped at the border. The West claimed that this was a crisis created by Belarus to split the European Union and fight back against sanctions. Minsk denied this accusation.
“We must prepare for the fact that the situation on the border between Poland and Belarus will not be resolved soon. We must prepare for a few months. I hope it will not last for many years,” Polish Minister of Defense Mariusz Blaszak (Mariusz Błaszczak) told Polish radio station Jedynka on Wednesday.
Błaszczak said that attempts to cross the border continued at night, adding that people used the same “method of attacking the Polish border” as on Tuesday.
“The public’s attention is focused on what happened in Kuźnica, while smaller groups of immigrants tried to break through the Polish border in other areas, also at night,” he said.
The Border Guard said it detected “161 illegal border crossing attempts” on Tuesday, including “two forced border crossing attempts registered at night.”
Polish police said on Wednesday that nine military officers, a border guard and a soldier were injured in the clashes on Tuesday.
A police spokesman said that no injured officers remained in the hospital.
