“They are mostly hired, paid individuals, primarily men — and not poor men either. They were tall, well-built men,” Private Karol Szczepański said about migrants at the Polish-Belarusian border during the program 13th Floor. The serviceman was recently acquitted of charges of unlawfully using his weapon during an intervention. As he explained, he believed at the time that there was a risk to human life.
Earlier this week, the Military Garrison Court in Lublin delivered its verdict in the case of a soldier accused of illegally using a firearm during an intervention at the Polish-Belarusian border. The case concerned events from March 2024, when Private Karol Szczepański fired 12 shots during an attempt by a group of migrants to breach the border.
Investigators argued that the soldier had endangered not only the migrants but also nearby Border Guard officers and fellow soldiers. According to the indictment, he exceeded his authority during the intervention near the village of Dubicze Cerkiewne on the Belarusian border. The incident occurred during a particularly tense period at the frontier.
On May 27, the court acquitted the serviceman.
“Mostly paid individuals”
Private Karol Szczepański appeared on the program 13th Floor, where he recounted the incident.
“During our lunch break, while returning from a patrol with a colleague, we spotted a group of migrants beginning to cross the border. They had already entered Polish territory. It was a really large group, around 50 people. The crossing took place quite close to a neighboring post staffed by two soldiers and two Border Guard officers. At that moment, I believed there could be a threat to life because of the sheer number of migrants, who were constantly behaving aggressively toward us,” he said.
“They threw stones and branches, threatened us, shone lasers at us, showed sharpened sticks and improvised knives, threatened our families, and took photos of us,” he continued, adding that the migrants claimed the photographs would be shown to the Belarusian services.
According to Szczepański, many of the migrants “could pose a real threat if encountered on the street.”
“These were not children or women. They were mostly hired, paid individuals, primarily men — and not poor men either. They were tall and physically fit,” he explained.
“Of course, there are some who genuinely believed in the prospect of a better future, or who thought Belarus bordered Germany. But from my observations — and I spent a total of about six months there — 95 percent were well-fed, well-groomed men who had been directed there by the Belarusian services,” he said.