Border police have been blinded with lasers and strobe lights as they struggle to shore up Europe’s eastern frontier defences against the flow of migrants unleashed by Belarus.
Polish authorities say soldiers loyal to Alexander Lukashenko, the despotic ruler of the former Soviet republic, have been arming refugees with tear gas as he steps up his so-called ‘hybrid war’ on Europe.
The latest escalation of this crisis started on Friday night as Belarus troops ripped down posts next to barbed-wire barriers that the Polish government has installed along 120 miles of the 250-mile border between the two nations.
They released video footage showing border guards targeted by strong lasers and bright strobe lighting. A spokesman for the Polish Border Force said about 100 migrants were armed with tear gas, which was used against their guards.
Pictured: A grab from a video showing a green laser is shone through a barbed wire fence
Lukashenko told a defence magazine yesterday he wanted to deploy Russian Iskander missile systems – which have a range of 300 miles and can carry conventional or nuclear warheads
The soldiers at the border shining the lights were carrying out the orders of their Minsk dictator leader Alexander Lukashenko (pictured on Friday in Minsk) to help migrants across the border to destabilise the EU
Videos have also shown Belarusian officials with wire-cutters and handing out tools to refugees to destroy fencing as they encourage the mass migration into the EU in revenge for Brussels’ support of the Minsk dictatorship’s critics.
The latest illegal incursion came as nations bordering Belarus, alarmed by the dramatically increased tensions and Russian military manoeuvres in the region, discuss whether to deploy a rarely invoked Nato treaty article that would lead to a unified response from all 30 signatories.
The treaty – underpinning Western security – means an attack against one ally is considered an attack against all allies.
Consideration of such a move demonstrates how worried neighbouring states are by Belarus’s belligerence.
Donald Tusk, the Polish former EU president, has called for Nato to invoke Article Four, while Lithuania’s National Defence Council met to agree on the criteria for seeking a unified Nato response to the border threat.
Lukashenko, who has ruled his country for 30 years and is Europe’s last dictator, has lured thousands of migrants to his country with visas and specially arranged flights.
They are then sent onwards to the EU in revenge for sanctions imposed after his crackdown on protests last year, following a fraudulent election and the illegal diverting of a Ryanair passenger flight to seize a prominent dissident in May.
The EU condemned the act of air piracy, barred Belarusian carriers from its skies and slashed imports of several key export commodities, including petroleum products and potash for fertiliser use.
The latest escalation of this crisis started on Friday night as Belarus troops ripped down posts next to barbed-wire barriers that the Polish government has installed along 120 miles of the 250-mile border between the two nations
Moscow denies orchestrating the Belarus policy. Yesterday, Putin said: ‘We have nothing to do with it.’ He blamed the West for the crisis, saying its policies in the Middle East were the reason migrants wanted to flee and go to Europe.
But Lukashenko told a defence magazine yesterday he wanted to
