Lukashenko admitted that his soldiers helped migrants cross to Poland – SME.sk

BRATISLAVA. Authoritarian President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko in an interview with the BBC he admitted that it was “quite possible” that his country’s security forces had helped migrants cross the border into Poland. However, he denied inviting migrants to Belarus.

Thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, have been trying to reach the European Union via Belarus for several months.

“We are Slavs. We have hearts. Our soldiers know that migrants are going to Germany. “” Maybe someone helped them. I won’t even investigate, “Lukashenko said.

Related article

Related article You can find all the misfortunes of the world on the Polish-Belarusian border (writes Petra Procházková) Read

The European Union, NATO and the United States have accused the Belarusian leader of luring migrants to the border with a false promise of easy entry into the European Union. However, Lukashenko denies this.

“I told them (the European Union) I would not detain migrants at the borders,” he said. “But I did not invite them here,” he told the BBC.

Lukashenko has been in power since 1994. His re-election as president last year is not recognized by the European Union. Thousands of opposition activists were imprisoned in Belarus and opposition leader Svetlana Cichanovska was forced to emigrate.

According to the European Union, Lukashenko has in recent months organized a migration crisis on the border with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in retaliation for the sanctions imposed by the Union on its regime for brutally repressing the opposition.