Poland fears a new migration crisis like the one experienced in 2021 on the border with Belarus after the announcement that the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad will be open to flights from the Middle East and Asia. The general secretary of the ruling Law and Justice party, Krzysztof Sobolewski, said on Polish public radio that “in the coming weeks” flights from Turkey, Syria and Belarus are expected in Kaliningrad, and that “we will have to strengthen ourselves in this sector – the of Kaliningrad – and also consider building on the border fortifications like the ones we have now” on the Belarusian border. Sobolewski also stated that large groups of migrants have been detected in the neighboring country.
According to the Visegrad24 portal, President Andrzej Duda yesterday called an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the Ministers of the Interior and Defense, and the main generals of the armed forces.
Poland accuses Russia and its ally Belarus of using migrants as part of a "hybrid war" against Europe in the context of the Ukraine conflict. The most pro-government Russian analysts and commentators have defended the need to provoke a major Ukrainian refugee crisis this winter. The situation to which Warsaw now alludes would constitute a variant.
At the time of the crisis last year, the Russian invasion had not yet begun. On that occasion, the government of Alexander Lukashenko facilitated the arrival of immigrants and refugees in his country with visas and false travel agencies to transfer them to the borders of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov said yesterday in a meeting with the press that Russia would not object to a Polish decision to erect a barrier on the Kaliningrad border, but that "history shows the stupidity of decisions such as building walls , because after years or decades, all the walls fall down”.
Warsaw built a 187-kilometre 5.5-meter steel barrier on the border with Belarus, equipped with sensors and cameras. As for Kaliningrad, a Border Guard spokesman said the Border Guard has received funding to install an "electronic barrier" of sensors and cameras along some 200 kilometers, but this will not start until the end of November.
