Polish services use tear gas and water cannon on migrants storming the border

Poland's security services have used water cannon on migrants, footage shared on Tuesday shows, after they threw rocks at them from across the border with Belarus. Footage shared by the Ministry of Defence and the Polich Border Guard showed an escalation at the border as thousands of migrants have gathered on the Belarusian side in the last week.

"Migrants attacked our soldiers and services with rocks and are trying to destroy the fence to enter Polish territory. Our services used tear gas to quash the migrants' aggression," Defence Ministry said.

On Monday (November 15), the migrants moved from the camps alongside the border fence to the Kuźnica border crossing, hoping to cross into Poland.

According to Polish authorities, more than 20,000 Polish security service members from the police, border guard or army are reinforcing the border where migrants have gathered near a crossing at the Polish town of Kuznica.

Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wąsik published a video on Twitter showing Polish services using water cannons against migrants on the Belarusian side. Messages played through speakers can also be heard in the footage.

European Union foreign ministers reached agreement on Monday (November 15) on a fifth round of sanctions in the Belarus migrant crisis, the bloc's top diplomat Josep Borrell said.

The measures will affect individuals and companies and be finalised in the coming days, Borrell told reporters in Brussels after meeting his EU counterparts.

"The road to the European Union does not lead via Belarus," Borrell said.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on the need for a de-escalation of the migrant crisis at the Belarus border, even if the two leaders disagreed on the origins of the crisis, a French official said on Monday.

The Western bloc is seeking to stop what it says is a policy by Belarus to push migrants towards the European Union in revenge for earlier sanctions over a crackdown on protests last year against veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko's re-election.

Migrants - mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan - began appearing on Belarus' land borders with the EU this year, trying to cross into member states Lithuania, Latvia and Poland via routes not used before.

"The goal of this call was to put an end to this crisis," an adviser to Macron told reporters after the 1 hour and 45 minute call Macron initiated.

"On the migration issue, even if there's no convergence on the origins of the current crisis at the Belarus border, Vladimir Putin told the president he understood the need to put an end to it, first and foremost out of human decency for the migrants that are being instrumentalised," the adviser said.

France also offers its full solidarity to Poland, the official said. "We stand ready to help Poland."