Defence ministry shows footage of a huge group of migrants at Belarus border

"The highest so far mass attempt to forcefully enter Polish territory" has been launched at the Polish-Belarusian border, spokesman for Poland's special services minister-coordinator, Stanisław Żaryn, said on Monday.

A footage published by independent Belarusian media showed hundreds of migrants with backpacks and sleeping bags following a path towards the Kuźnica Białostocka-Bruzgi border crossing station at the border with Poland. The people were assisted by armed men in uniforms.

Shortly before 11 a.m. Poland's Ministry of National Defence published a helicopter footage showing the situation nearby Kuźnica. The town is located in the state of emergency area. The video shows a cordon of Polish officers on the Polish side, and hundreds of migrants on the on the Belarusian side, separated with border fence.

Poland's Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said the border with Belarus was being protected already by 12,000 soldiers. He added that the Territorial Defence Force was also put on high alert.

An independent Belarusian journalist, Tadeusz Giczan, said on Sunday evening that there were almost no migrants in Minsk that day.

"Today thousands (?) of them moved from Belarus’ capital to Kuznica-Bruzgi crossing to try to storm the Polish border in one large group. The storm is planned for tomorrow morning. I’m afraid it could turn really nasty," he said in a tweet.

The European Union has accused Belarus of encouraging thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa to cross into EU countries via Belarus, as a form of hybrid warfare in revenge for Western sanctions on Minsk over human rights abuses. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's government has repeatedly denied manufacturing a migrant crisis, blaming the West for the crossings and the treatment of migrants at the border. The Belarusian state border committee issued a statement confirming that a large group of refugees was moving along the highway to the Polish border, and saying Warsaw was taking an "inhumane attitude". The EU, the United States and Britain imposed sanctions on Belarus after Lukashenko unleashed a violent crackdown on mass protests following a disputed election last year.

Charities say the migrants face gruelling conditions while trying to cross the border from Belarus, enduring freezing weather and a lack of food, water and medical attention. Polish authorities say at least seven dead migrants have been found on Poland's side of the border, with unverified reports of more deaths in Belarus. Humanitarian groups accuse Poland's ruling nationalists of violating the international right to asylum by pushing migrants back into Belarus instead of accepting their applications for protection. Poland says its actions are legal. Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Facebook that "the Polish border is not just a line on a map. The border is sacred - Polish blood has been spilled for it!".