Lukashenko will continue to fuel hybrid activity on the Polish-Belarusian border, warns Eastern Europe expert Arthur Kenigsberg, founder of think tank EuroCreative. He notes that the Belarusian dictator is trying to cause chaos in the region at all costs to “punish Poland and Lithuania for their support for the Belarusian opposition”.
“There is a hybrid war on the Polish-Belarusian border, not a “migration crisis”. It is the Lukashenko regime that brings in migrants to put pressure on Poland and the EU and create instability,” Kenigsberg says.
The expert notes that Lukashenko is using unconventional weapons to destabilize the region, including large-scale disinformation.
“The destabilizing activities in the region have been taking place since June and the sanctions that the EU introduced against the Lukashenko regime for the hijacking of a plane carrying (opposition blogger) Raman Pratasevich in May. The position of France and the EU towards the actions of Belarus is clear. France does not agree with Poland on everything, but on the issue of the border crisis it has repeatedly expressed its full support and solidarity with Poland,” recalls Kenigsberg.
Asked about his stance on the negotiations with Lukashenko conducted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her final weeks in office, Kenigsberg noted that “the arrangements of the Merkel-Lukashenko talks are not clear, as they have not been communicated to the public”.
“We don’t know what they determined (…) The EU has adopted sanctions against Belarus, but in my view, they are not sufficiently enforced. Sanctions against Belarusian airlines should also be enforced,” emphasized the expert.