The use of migrants for political purposes is totally unacceptable and inhumane, Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Ivan Korčok posted on a social network in response to the situation prevailing on the Belarus-Poland border on Monday. "Strongly condemn recent escalation of hybrid attack against EU by Lukashenko regime at the Belarus-Poland border. Full solidarity with Poland!" reads Korčok’s reaction.
Moreover, due to the current situation, Polish President Andrzej Duda cancelled the first day of his visit to Slovakia. Duda arrived on Tuesday, instead of Monday as planned, and was received by Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová. Apart from discussing cooperation between Slovakia and Poland and bilateral cooperation within the EU, the main point of Duda’s meeting was to inform Poland’s ally of the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border.
Poland as well as Lithuania and Latvia openly accuse the government of Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko of transporting migrants from the Middle East and Africa to Belarus and subsequently sending them across the border to the EU, in an effort to destabilise the EU as payback for sanctions imposed by Brussels on Minsk.
The sanctions were imposed in 2020 in reaction to what the EU perceived as a manipulated presidential election. According to official election results, Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, garnered 80.1% of vote, whereas his main challenger and current opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was runner-up with 10%. The turnout stood at 84.3%.
