Poland may reopen Belarus border under one condition, Polish PM says

He said this in an interview with the Belarusian portal Zierkało, RMF24 reports.

According to the minister, the decision to close the Bobrowice checkpoint on the Polish-Belarusian border was made by the previous government in response to the conviction of Polish-language journalist Andrzej Poczobut.

Therefore, Sikorski noted that the date of opening of this center depends on the duration of his imprisonment.

Currently, Poland has only one checkpoint with Belarus, located in Tereszpol.

The Foreign Minister added that the Polish authorities separate "ordinary" Belarusians from the authorities in Minsk. This allows Belarusians, unlike Russians, to enter Poland in their own cars.

Reference: Andrzej Poczobut is a Belarusian journalist, publicist and blogger, activist of the Union of Poles of Belarus. He was detained in 2021 in Belarus. On February 8, 2023, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison in a maximum-security colony, the trial was held in closed session. The journalist was found guilty of "harming the national security of the country" and "inciting hatred."

What is happening on the Polish-Belarusian border

On May 28, an illegal alien stabbed a Polish soldier on the border with Belarus. The Polish government said it would strengthen border protection. Later it became known that the Polish soldier died in hospital.

In this regard, on May 29, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that his country would restore the buffer zone on the border with Belarus. This followed a recent knife attack by migrants on a Polish border guard.

On June 3, a group of migrants trying to illegally cross the border from Belarus to Poland attacked a border guard.

After that, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski announced the launch of an information campaign in the countries of origin of migrants trying to illegally cross the Polish-Belarusian border.

On June 7, in Poland, preventive police officers on duty at the Polish-Belarusian border were obliged to carry personal weapons due to the worsening situation with migrants.

On June 10, the Polish government adopted a resolution that resulted in the Interior Ministry issuing a decree on the introduction of a buffer zone on the border with Belarus.

On July 6, Polish Border Guard spokeswoman Katarzyna Zdanowicz said that the buffer zone in the border zone with Belarus, introduced on June 13, had more than halved the number of illegal migrants trying to get from or to Poland.