Polish government official Stanisław Żaryn has predicted that the migrant crisis on the border with Belarus may last for a long time, adding that the conflict may be a “cynical ploy” orchestrated by Belarusian services facilitating the incursion attempts “to exhaust our soldiers and officers”.
Mr Żaryn, the spokesman for the Minister-Coordinator of Special Services, part of the National Security Department of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, spoke out on the ongoing crisis in which thousands of migrants have camped along the border and tried to illegally cross from Belarus in recent weeks.
“The conflict on the Polish-Belarusian border starts to be estimated to last for a long time. It may also mean a cynical ploy to exhaust our soldiers and officers,” Żaryn told the Polish Press Agency (PAP), per comments reported by the Polish English language broadcaster TVP World.
“We are entering the conflict phase when each day starts to look alike. We are still dealing with repeated attacks by groups of foreigners supported by the Belarusian services. We can see that this conflict is starting to be a conflict estimated to last for a long time,” he added.
Żaryn also noted that the migrants currently trying to storm the Polish border were not Afghan nationals, but predicted that such a mass flow of illegals leaving the Taliban-controlled country could start in the Spring of next year, and that Poland and other European countries should brace for that potential wave of people.
Some have claimed that as many as three million Afghan nationals may make attempts to enter Europe illegally in the coming months following the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in August.
“We are dealing with a demanding period for our soldiers and officers who have a right to be weary and tired of this conflict,” Żaryn told the broadcaster and said Poland was concerned with an increase of aggressive propaganda from both Belarus and Russia.
The statements come just days after Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called Belarus’s use of migrants “hybrid warfare” and said that the actions of the Belarusian regime were the “greatest attempt to destabilise Europe” since the Cold War.
“Europe, our common home, is threatened. At this very moment, a hybrid war is taking place on the Polish-Belarusian border which Alexander Lukashenko, with the backroom support of Vladimir Putin, has declared against the entire European Union,” the Polish leader said.
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