Poland’s Prime Minister has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being behind a migrant crisis at Belarus’s border with Poland.
Mateusz Morawiecki said that Belarus’s authoritarian leader, a close ally of Mr Putin, is orchestrating the crisis, but “it has its mastermind in Moscow”.At least 2,000 migrants are stuck at the border in freezing conditions.
Belarus’s leader Alexander Lukashenko denies claims it is sending people over the border in revenge for EU sanctions.
Video footage shows crowds of people on the Belarusian side of a barbed-wire border fence with Poland. Some try to force their way through using bolt cutters, tree trunks and group force, while Polish guards fend them off with what appears to be tear gas.
Many of the migrants are young men but there are also women and children, mostly from the Middle East and Asia. They are camping in tents just inside Belarus, trapped between Polish guards on one side, and Belarusian guards on the other.
