Democracy Digest: Sticking the V4 up at Belarus

In an escalation of the migrant crisis being fomented by Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko, with the alleged help of his political ally Russian President Vladimir Putin, designed to destabilise EU countries and test their military capabilities, tensions began growing when a large group of migrants on Monday attempted to cross into Poland at an official border-crossing point.

However, it seems Belarusian authorities saw the potential to create havoc and subsequently steered them away from the official crossing point, channelling them towards several points along the Polish-Belarusian border and towards the Lithuanian one too.

So far this week, collective attempts have been made to cross at Kuznice, Krynki and Bialowieza, with Poland's government saying it had rebuffed an illegal "invasion". The Polish Interior Ministry confirmed another group attempt on Wednesday night, this time numbering about 150 people, without providing the specific location.

While Poland has insisted it can handle the border crisis alone - refusing, for example, to request the assistance of EU border agency Frontex - a diplomatic flurry of activity took place this week as the situation escalated. The UN Security Council was scheduled to discuss the Poland-Belarus border crisis on Thursday.

On Wednesday night, after meeting with European Council President Charles Michel, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki tweeted: "Poland and the Baltic states protect their borders guarding peace and stability in Europe. We have full support of NATO and the EU. Unity and tightening the sanctions are currently the most urgent responses to the BY hybrid attack. Thank you, Charles Michel."

On Wednesday, the EU accused Belarus of conducting a "brutal attack" using...

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