Poland will increase the number of military personnel on the border with Belarus almost threefold, the Republic’s Ministry of National Defense reports.
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“A new mission will be launched from August 1. Two operations will be completed – one was training and one for border protection. There will be one operation “safe Podlasie”, in which up to 17 thousand military personnel will take part,” the message says.
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The military clarified that there are currently about six thousand soldiers on the border with Belarus.
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It is reported that the 18th Mechanized Division will be responsible for the border operation.
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In mid-2021, several thousand migrants gathered at the Polish-Belarusian border in the hope of reaching EU countries. Since then, several hundred illegal immigrants have been trying to enter Poland every month. Polish authorities have strengthened border security, deployed the military and are suppressing attempts by illegal immigrants, blaming Minsk for the migration crisis.
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Belarus denies all these accusations, saying that Poland is forcibly expelling migrants onto its territory and artificially escalating the situation with refugees. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko noted that Minsk will no longer restrain the flow of illegal migrants to EU countries: due to Western sanctions, there is “neither money nor strength” for this.
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Poland has already built a fence on the border with Belarus. The fence is 186 kilometers long, five meters high, and costs 1.6 billion zlotys (about $400 million).
