US President contacts Belarus: Biden worried about the situation on the Polish border

US President contacts Belarus
Biden worried about the situation on the Polish border

The situation on the Polish-Belarusian border is increasingly developing into a humanitarian catastrophe: thousands of refugees are stuck in sub-zero temperatures. Polish newspapers report ten dead. Now US President Joe Biden is expressing concern – and is contacting Russia and Belarus.

US President Joe Biden has expressed concern about the situation on the Belarusian-Polish border. The situation is “very worrying,” said Biden. “We have expressed our concern about Russia and we have expressed our concern about Belarus.”

Thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, are currently stuck at the EU’s external border in Poland at temperatures around freezing point. In a makeshift camp in the border area between Poland and Belarus, more than 2,000 migrants are currently waiting under the most difficult conditions. According to a report by the Polish newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza”, ten people have already died in the border area in recent months.

EU wants to tighten sanctions

The EU accuses the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of targeting migrants to the borders of the EU states Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in retaliation for sanctions. At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday, the United States and the European members of the Belarusian government accused the Belarusian government of “orchestrating the instrumentalization of people” and destabilizing the EU’s external borders.

In the conflict with Belarus, the EU will tighten its course once again: At the EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, the sanctions would be extended to people “who indirectly or directly” supported the smuggling of migrants to Belarus, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the “Rheinische Post” and the “Bonner General-Anzeiger”. The SPD politician also did not rule out punitive measures against participating airlines.

Poland has stationed 15,000 soldiers in the area and erected a fence made of barbed wire because of the crowds. Belarus and allied Russia announced joint military exercises in the Belarusian region of Grodno near the Polish border on Friday.

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