Polish Border Guards Ask Army For Additional Aid
On August 7, during the briefing of the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration, Maciej Wąsik, and commander of the Polish Border Guards, Gen. Tomasz Praga. In his speech, Praga noted that acts of violence against border guards officers have intensified in recent weeks. A new wave of migrants and several breaches of the border fence have been reported as well.
Tomasz Praga, the Commander-in-Chief of Poland’s Border Guards, said:
“We have a new wave of illegal migration and the next chapter of the hybrid-war on the Polish-Belarus border. […] This year there were already over 19,000 attempts at illegal border crossing. In previous year there were 16,000 such attempts in total. In July we reported over 4,000 attempts at illegal border crossing, a record number.”
According to the Praga, the Belarusians have changed tactics and are now concentrating migrants on border posts and moving them en masse on the line of the border when the circumstances allow for a breach attempt.
Deputy Minister Wąsik noted that Praga had asked for the deployment of an additional 1,000 troops on the border to stabilize the situation. Polish authorities have been struggling with illegal migration since late 2021 when the first mass attempts at crossing the border took place.
In July this year, the Armed Forces General Command began sharing photographs of Polish sharpshooters and snipers on the border with Belarus as a part of a broader deterrence operation through social media platforms.
The Polish-Belarus border once again becomes an area of confrontation between the West and East. The recent intrusion of Belarusian military helicopters into Polish airspace at the beginning of August falls into the provocations pattern as well.
Despite all of the occurring events, Polish Armed Forces and Border Guards continue enhancing their presence in the Podlasie region, reinforcing border points and constantly monitoring the border fence. De-escalation does not appear to be on the horizon.