Moscow has also been accused of helping to orchestrate a crisis that has left hundreds of migrants from the Middle East trapped on the Belarus-Poland border, reports Asian Lite News
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday it would be a “tragic mistake” for Russia to embark on “military adventurism” on the borders of Poland and Ukraine, amid escalating regional tensions.
“What we’ve got to do is to make sure that everybody understands that the cost of miscalculation on the borders of both Ukraine and of Poland would be enormous,” Johnson told a panel of senior UK lawmakers.
“I think it would be a tragic, tragic mistake for the Kremlin to think there was anything to be gained by military adventurism.”
The British leader’s comments, during a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with a watchdog committee of MPs, came as the West grows increasingly concerned about Russian troop movements at the Ukrainian border.
Moscow has also been accused of helping to orchestrate a crisis that has left hundreds of migrants from the Middle East trapped on the Belarus-Poland border.
Thousands of troops have been deployed on both sides, and after Belarus recently held joint drills with Russian paratroopers.
Belarus, Germany hold talks
The Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held another telephone conversation about the problem of migrants at the borders of Belarus with EU countries.
According to a Belarus Today report, the two political leaders agreed that the problem would be brought up to the level of Belarus and the EU, and officials would immediately enter into negotiations to resolve the existing problem. Refugees’ wishes to obtain asylum in Germany would be addressed in the same context.
Thousands of refugees, with most of them coming from the Middle East, are trying to enter Poland, Lithuania and other EU countries from Belarus. On November 8, thousands of refugees seeking asylum in Germany camped on the border with Poland.
EU foreign ministers agree on new sanctions
Foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) have agreed on new sanctions against Belarus over the migrant crisis, the bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said.
Addressing a press conference after the ministers’ meeting on Monday, he said the new set of sanctions had been “politically adopted” and “will be finalized in the coming days.” The sanctions will affect “quite an important number” of individuals and entities, he added.
So far, 166 individuals and 15 entities have been designated under the EU’s sanctions on Belarus, according to the bloc’s external action service.
The Polish Defence Ministry said that the number of migrants gathered at Kuznica has been steadily growing. The latest reports estimated their number at between 2,000 and 4,000.
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