Actions taken by Polish institutions and our allies have brought the expected results, and this route to Belarus has been stopped, or at least curbed – said Stanisław Żaryn, Spokesperson for the Minister Coordinator of Special Services. He added that there were still several thousand migrants in Belarus.
Żaryn noted that at the beginning of the year and in the last days of 2021, no return flights to migrants’ countries were observed in Belarus. “So, it’s important to recognize that those return movements have ended on a few or a dozen flights that were organized in late 2021. As part of these flights, almost 4,000 foreigners who had previously been transported to Belarus were flown to Iraq and Syria,” he said.
“The group of foreigners who were supposed to stay in Belarus, continue to maintain the desire to attack our border remains at several thousand. We estimate it could be between 4,000 and 5,000 people,” emphasized the Spokesperson for the Minister Coordinator of Special Services.
As he explained, Polish services at the same time do not observe the arrival of subsequent groups of foreigners to Minsk. “It can be seen that the actions taken by Polish institutions, as well as by our allies, have brought the expected results and this route to Belarus has been stopped, or at least curbed,” he said.
“However, this does not mean that we can sleep peacefully, to put it colloquially, because still, this number of foreigners who are in Belarus is so large that this conflict may continue for many more weeks. We expect that when there are warmer months in our part of Europe, this conflict may escalate again,” a Spokesperson stipulated.
As he stressed, provocations carried out by Belarusian services are becoming more frequent. “In recent days there have been recorded such attempts to attack our border, officers, and soldiers, without the participation of foreigners,” the Spokesperson noted.
“We assess this situation as still being a major challenge for our state,” Żaryn said.