Thursday, November 18, 2021
Worry about the influx of refugees
Ukraine is arming the border with Belarus
The government in Kiev believes it is possible that stranded refugees will be brought to the border between Belarus and Ukraine. More than 8,500 national guards are on their way there, announced the ambassador in Berlin. The British Prime Minister warns Russia against military adventures.
The government in Kiev fears that the refugees will be diverted from the Belarusian-Polish border to Ukraine. “There is a risk that smuggled migrants will be diverted from the Belarusian-Polish border to the border with Ukraine,” said the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, the newspapers of the Funke media group. Kiev sent more than 8,500 police officers, national guards and border guards to the border region. “This is just the beginning. A state of emergency may also be declared. We are prepared for anything,” added the ambassador.
The border between Ukraine and Belarus is more than 1,000 kilometers long and consists of swamps and forests that are difficult to control. “We are concerned that this area could be used for possible provocations,” said Melnyk. The current migrant crisis was staged by the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko and Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin “to conceal Russia’s military activities off the eastern border of Ukraine and in Donbass,” the diplomat told the Funke newspapers.
“Three Red Alert”
On Wednesday morning, Melnyk had stated that Kiev feared an invasion in view of Russian troop movements on its own border. “Never since 2014, when the Russians occupied the Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine with armed force, the threat of a new, large-scale invasion has been more acute than these days,” Andrij Melnyk told the newspapers. “We have three red alerts.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Russia that evening against “military adventurism” on the borders with Ukraine and Poland. “We have to make sure everyone understands that the cost of miscalculation at the borders of Ukraine and Poland would be enormous,” Johnson told a group of British MPs, according to Sky News. “I think it would be a tragic, tragic mistake if the Kremlin believed that it could gain something through military adventurism.”