DUBICZE CERKIEWNE, Poland (AP) — Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated Wednesday that its forces would even more strengthen the border with Belarus and can utilize “all offered methods” to safeguard the NATO country’s frontier, after a soldier was seriously injured with a knife by a migrant.
Tusk stated that a buffer zone some 200 meters (660 feet) broad would be established along the border, which is likewise the European Union’s eastern frontier, in addition to a 190-kilometer (118-mile) long metal barrier currently in location to avoid an increase of migrants crossing from Belarus. Poland states the pressure of unlawful migration is arranged by Belarus and Russia.
Tusk stated the federal government will decide on the buffer zone next week.
Tusk, together with the defense and interior ministers, went to soldiers, border guards and police protecting the border following a knife attack on a soldier early Tuesday near the town of Dubicze Cerkiewne.
Authorities stated the soldier stays hospitalized in severe condition.
Authorities stated a migrant reached throughout the bars of the more than 5-meter (16-foot) high metal wall separating Poland and Belarus and stabbed the soldier in the ribs. Polish security forces were unable to apprehend the assailant since he was on the Belarus side of the barrier, authorities stated.
“There is no space for settlement. Poland’s border should be secured,” Tusk stated. “Polish soldiers, border guards, officers have actually ended up being the targets of aggressiveness and you have every right, not to state a responsibility, to utilize every methods offered to you … when you are protecting not just the border however likewise you own life,” Tusk stated.
Tusk and Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz stated that extra cops and military forces will be sent out to the location.
The pro-EU federal government states the pressure and aggressiveness of unlawful migration is increasing, arranged by Russia and Belarus to destabilize Europe as Moscow incomes war on Ukraine. Poland’s authorities state migrants groups now primarily consist of boys, compared to households with ladies and kids formerly. More than 13,000 efforts at unlawful crossing were signed up up until now this year, an increase from the very same duration in 2015.