On November 8, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda held consultations in Warsaw with the government, military and border guard service regarding the artificial migration crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border (Prezydent.pl, November 8). The situation there has intensified, with 3,000–4,000 migrants gathered in the direct vicinity of Poland’s eastern frontier, declared Piotr Müller, the government spokesperson (PAP, November 8). On the same day, the Polish Ministry of Defense put the Territorial Defense Force on standby, with six-hour call-ups for brigades located in districts bordering Belarus and Russia (Twitter.com/terytorialsi, November 8). Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak informed, on November 9, during an extraordinary session of the Sejm (lower chamber of parliament) that 13,000 troops were on active duty along the border (Sejm.gov.pl, November 9). The Border Guard has suspended trans-border traffic in Kuźniki, one of seven road crossings on the border with Belarus (Strazgraniczna.pl, November 8). The actions were preceded by “push-back” operations, a declaration of a state of emergency in some of the bordering regions, a build-up of the provisional fence, and a decision to build more fencing and detection infrastructure along the state boundary in the coming months (estimated total cost around $400 million).
Crisis on the Polish-Belarusian Border—What Strategy for Warsaw? – Jamestown
