PM visits servicepeople protecting Poland's border with Belarus
Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday visited Border Guard servicepeople, police officers and soldiers serving at Poland's border with Belarus, which is under constant pressure from illegal migration sponsored by Minsk.
During his visit to Ozierany Wielkie, a village on Poland's border with Belarus, Tusk was accompanied by Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski.
"I would very much like all compatriots, without exception, when they sit at their Christmas Eve tables, to remember about all those who will be protecting our border on that evening and the following Christmas days, all who in uniforms and plain clothes will be on duty," the prime minister said.
"For someone to celebrate, someone else has to keep watch," Tusk added.
During the Christmas holidays, over 4,000 soldiers and several hundred Border Guard and police officers will be on duty on Poland's border with Belarus and Lithuania, Tusk also said.
In total, about 11,000 Border Guard officers and soldiers are regularly on duty at the border with Belarus, according to the Prime Minister's Office.
Warsaw has accused Minsk of orchestrating a migration crisis on its border with Belarus by inviting tens of thousands of migrants, primarily from the Middle East and Africa, and encouraging them to cross illegally into the EU through Poland. Poland believes that the crisis, which started in 2021, is meant to destabilise the EU. (PAP)
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