Poland blackmailing Belarus with military deployment to border: Lukashenko

Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko has accused Poland of blackmailing his country by sending armored vehicles and troops to the border amid an escalation of a migration crisis.

According to reports, Poland has closed its border with Belarus as hundreds of migrants, trying to cross into the European Union, are stranded in freezing temperatures on the border between the two countries.

Reports said Poland planned to send Leopard tanks to the town of Biala Podlaska on the border with Belarus.

Lukashenko warned Warsaw against the deployment, saying, "It's obvious that this is either some sort of training or blackmail."

"Pardon me but fighting against migrants with Leopards?" he told Russia's National Defense magazine on Tuesday. "We are well versed militarily and understand what it means today to wage war with these poor people on Poland's border with, say, Belarus, and to advance columns of tanks."

The president also warned against the military movements "in the heart of Europe and even more so [in a conflict] with Belarus. saying that, "In today's world, taking up arms is tantamount to death or suicide."

Polish border guards beat migrants: Belarus

The Belarusian border guard service said in a statement on Wednesday that Polish guards were beating migrants at their shared border.

"Judging by the numerous injuries on the bodies of the migrants, the Polish security forces mistreated the people and, using force, pushed them out behind a barbed-wire fence on the border with Belarus," the statement said.

"According to the refugees, they were detained on the territory of Poland where they had tried to ask for protection and refugee status," it added.

The border guards also shared images showing four ethnic Kurds with bloody clothes and one with cuts on his hands. They said the men had been given medical assistance.

Polish border guards say about 800 migrants are staying in a makeshift camp near the border crossing post of Kuznitsa. Another 3,000 to 4,000 people are also staying in the forested areas along the entire length of the Polish-Belarusian border.

SS