The British Ministry of Defense informed that the United Kingdom would send 140 military engineers to Poland in December. British troops are expected to provide support to Polish authorities amid the ongoing crisis which is regularly being referred to as a hybrid war on the border with Belarus. 

„Our commitment to European security is unwavering and we will always offer support to our allies. This non-combat assistance will support Polish efforts to protect the border and transfer important engineering knowledge,” Defense Minister Ben Wallace explained.

The dispatch of a detachment of engineering troops is the result of arrangements made during Wallace’s visit to Poland in mid-November. A few days before this visit, Great Britain sent a 10-person engineering unit to the Polish-Belarusian border, which examined the situation on the spot.

The crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border was triggered by the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, which uses migrants coming mostly from the Middle East in order to destabilise the EU and NATO. 

Many believe that this whole situation should be interpreted as à personal vengeance of the Belarussian dictator following EU sanctions and Western support for anti-government demonstrations which took place in the last year and à half in Minsk and across the country.

The situation got more threatening in mid-November when migrants gathered near the border crossing in Kuźnica and tried to get to Poland by force. Since then, such attempts of illegally crossing the border have been taking place on a regular basis, with the support of Belarussian authorities who are playing destabilising mind games with the Polish border guards.

In the context of the ongoing crisis, the borderly region with Belarus is under a state of emergency. The access to this border area to journalists and human rights activists remains strictly regulated.

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen

Photo: Unsplash