Poland accused Belarus of staging an armed cross-border intrusion and said on Wednesday it had summoned the Belarusian chargé d'affaires to protest what it sees as a deliberate escalation of the migrant crisis at the frontier.
Warsaw has imposed a state of emergency at the border following a surge in migrants from countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq trying to enter Poland, a European Union member, via Belarus.
Poland's foreign ministry said unidentified uniformed individuals armed with long guns had crossed into Polish territory from Belarus on the night of Monday, November 1.
"Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk forwarded an emphatic protest... against the violation of the Polish state border, emphasising that the actions taken by the Belarusian authorities in recent weeks have the increasingly evident hallmarks of a deliberate escalation," the ministry said in a statement.
Wawrxyk also "pointed out that Poland deems such actions unacceptable and will not tolerate them. He highlighted that Poland is determined to defend its borders and the external borders of the European Union".
"He also communicated that Poland and the Euro-Atlantic community of democratic states will consistently stand opposed to illegal migration orchestrated by Minsk. The deputy foreign minister announced a note of protest to the MFA of the Republic of Belarus and urged the Belarusian side to explain the incident immediately," the statement reads.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's office did not respond to a request for comment. Reuters was not immediately able to contact the Belarusian embassy in Warsaw.
Tuesday's meeting was the third time in a month that Belarusian envoy Alexander Chesnovsky had been called in to answer questions about the situation at the border, where hundreds have been trying to cross illegally every day.
The European Commission and Warsaw say the flow of migrants has been orchestrated by Belarus as a form of hybrid warfare designed to put pressure on the EU over sanctions it imposed on Minsk. Belarus has denied this.
Spokesperson for the bloc's executive Peter Stano was quoted as saying by PAP that the EU had full trust that Polish authorities would handle this incident.
He added that if the incident was confirmed, it would mean it was yet another provocation by the Lukashenko regime aimed against the European Union and its member states.
The Belarusian State Border Guard Committee spokesperson Anton Bychkovsky denied the accusation, which he said was aimed at allowing Poland to extend its state of emergency at the border. "This suggests that the main purpose of these actions lies in the field of the escalation of tension and further attempts to create a negative image of Belarus," the official Belta news agency quoted him as saying.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters, PAP