The Lukashenko administration did not like the Polish government's announcement to close the Bobrowniki border post, one of the main crossing points between Poland and Belarus, and one of the outer limits of the European Community territory, through the which thousands of trucks with merchandise passed daily. Minsk has described the decision as "catastrophic" in a statement issued by the Belarusian Border Committee on social networks, which warned that "the actions of the Polish authorities could cause a collapse on both sides of the border."
The closure of the pass, valid from yesterday at noon until further notice, was announced on Thursday morning by the Polish interior minister, citing security reasons. A decision that complicated the already tense relations between the two countries.
After the closure takes effect, only two of the six main land border crossings along the two countries' 400-kilometre border will be open, the Belarusian border force said in the statement. That, according to Minsk, will complicate loading at the remaining two checkpoints, which will have to endure even longer queues.
Poland has become a key haven for opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko and one of Kiev's staunchest supporters since Russia, Belarus' main ally, invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Another movement that has sharpened the hostility between the Morawiecki and Lukashenko administrations and that could have prompted the decision to close the border was the imprisonment of the journalist Andrzej Poczobut, a figure of the Polish minority present in Belarus, to eight years in prison, in the midst of a wave of repression against opponents of the Minsk regime.
Poczobut, 49, a journalist for the influential Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, was convicted of harming Belarus' national security and “inciting discord” in a closed-door trial in the western city of Grodno. Upon learning of the sentence, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki reacted with a tweet in which he condemned the "inhumane decision of the Belarusian regime" and vowed to "do everything possible to help the Polish journalist who is fighting bravely for the truth."
