Poland closes border with Belarus: Russia declares escalation of tension and urges Warsaw to reconsider

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Poland's decision to close the border with Belarus is Warsaw's desire for further escalation of tensions in Central Europe. She emphasized that such a decision would harm Poland's international partners, UNN reports with reference to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The Polish authorities decided to close all checkpoints on the border with the Republic of Belarus, including road and rail, from 00:00 on September 12. The formal reason for this measure is the 'West-2025' military exercises, which are regularly conducted by the armed forces of Russia and Belarus with an appropriate level of public coverage and an invitation to representatives of all OSCE countries, including Poland, to observe them.

At the same time, Zakharova stated that Warsaw allegedly demonstratively ignored the decisions "taken as a gesture of goodwill" to move the maneuvers from the Polish borders to the central part of Belarus and reduce the number of personnel and military equipment involved in them.

It is obvious that the confrontational steps taken by the Polish leadership are subordinated to a single task - to justify the line of further escalation of tension in the center of Europe.

She also stated that Poland's unilateral actions would allegedly cause serious damage to its international partners who use the Polish-Belarusian border for trade.

It is also clear that the restrictions imposed by the Polish leadership undermine basic humanitarian principles, primarily the freedom of movement of people. Residents of the border areas of Poland and Belarus are deprived of the opportunity to maintain traditionally close family ties and human contacts.

Addition

For national security reasons, in accordance with the resolution of the Polish government, air traffic will be restricted along the borders with Belarus and Ukraine: a complete ban on flights will be in effect.

Poland has begun redeploying military equipment to the border with Belarus. Morning footage shows columns of Polish military personnel and vehicles actively heading to the border.