Almost two months ago, the Wagner Force marched on Moscow in a dramatic and bloody effort to oust Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Now, although the mercenary group no longer threatens the stability inside Russia, the federation has been using it to create a new flashpoint with the West: The Belarusian borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.

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Wagner's march on Moscow came to a halt some 130 miles from the capital, with its commander Yevgeny Prigozhin and fighters given three choices: integrating into the Russian military; going to Africa (where Wagner Force has been operating in multiple theaters); or leaving to Belarus. The Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko, whose regime is dependent on Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been claiming that he was the one who invited them to his country.

According to various estimates, there are somewhere between 3,800 to 4,000 Russian mercenaries currently in Belarus, and according to Lukashenko and his state media, their goal is to "train and bolster the Belarusian military using the immense combat experience they have accumulated." But it is far from certain if this tells the whole story. Pavel Matsukevich, a senior researcher at a think tank and former Belarusian diplomat, has questions as to who is funding their activity and the training they have been providing the Belarusian armed forces. "Mercenaries don't work for free," he wrote in a review he published over the weekend. "In fact, they tend to get generous compensation for their work."

Video: Polish prime minister warns about Wagner Group's activity / Credit: Reuters

Valery Kavaleuski, the deputy head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus (which has been operating from Lithuania after Lukashenko refused to concede defeat following the 2020 election), says that the hosting of the Wagner Force has been imposed on Lukashenko. "Wagner poses a threat to Ukraine, to NATO's borders and to the Belarusian society, and even on Lukashenko himself," he told Israel Hayom. "Their loyalty has always been to Russia and to its interests. In fact, after the events of June, they could be inclined to help undo the damage they inflicted on Putin's image in their mutiny. The danger they pose is high all-around."

The danger is becoming very real. In fact, one cannot rule out the possibility that in the wake of the rebellion, a new plan has been concocted in the Moscow-Minsk axis, one that would involve creating a new theater of conflict: The Belarusian borders with Latvia, Lithuania – and especially with Poland. In fact, several days ago, the Polish Foreign Ministry claimed that the Wagnerites tried to cross into Poland. Just over a week ago, the government in Warsaw sounded the alarm, saying that some 100 of the group's fighters were sent to the Suwałki Gap – an overland corridor connecting Belarus with the Russian enclave Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea – in order to help traffic labor migrants into Poland. The corridor, which is also used as the land border between Poland and Lithuania, is NATO's Achilles heel: There was a time in the past when its seizing by Russia would have resulted in the Baltic member states being cut off from the rest of the alliance. On August 1, 2023, two Belarusian helicopters flew some 1.8 miles into Polish airspace as part of what was ostensibly a "security flight" for Lukashenko's visit to the border area. That incident came on the heels of another development: In June, Russia transferred tactical nuclear weapons into Belarus.

"The Wagner group is extremely dangerous and they are being moved to [NATO's] eastern flank to destabilize it," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a statement. "We need to be aware that the number of provocations will rise," he warned. In the wake of Wagner's arrival in Belarus, Poland has deployed another 1,000 troops on its eastern border and placed helicopters on alert nearby. Currently, there are no signs that the group is planning to invade Poland or capture the strategic corridor, as it has insufficient manpower or weaponry for such an undertaking. However, according to Kavaleuski, it wouldn't have to do that. "They can destabilize things in the EU and in NATO with small provocations on the border, thus impacting political processes," he says.

The conventional wisdom is that the immediate goal the provocations seek to achieve is bifurcated: Challenging NATO and having it divert attention to yet another theater – which could force it to scale back some of the support it has been lending Ukraine. Another simultaneous goal can be psychological: Creating "Ukraine war fatigue" in Europe and in the West in particular. Down the road, if and when Ukraine and the West hold ceasefire talks vis-a-vis Russia, the tension on the Belarus-Polish border could be used as a bargaining chip and improve Moscow's standing as the sides try to find a "comprehensive solution" to the crises that are of its own making.

Meanwhile, the Belarusian government-in-exile has been stressing at every international forum that there is an ever-increasing threat from Belarus and voicing concern over the hardships endured by their compatriots who have been taken hostage by the Kremlin's plans and the survival games of Lukashenko's dictatorial regime. "What's been unfolding in Belarus impacts everyone's security, but we have to make the voice of the citizens of Belarus heard," Kavaleuski says. "The new Iron Curtain that has been drawn must be on the eastern border of Belarus rather than cut us out from Europe, where we belong. We don't want to be – and will not be – part of the relations imposed on us by Moscow."

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Ever since the Russian invasion, Ukraine has been busy cleansing itself of any sign of its former Russian and Soviet rulers. Statues of Russian leaders and cultural figures have been removed from public spaces, and streets once named after Russians or Bolsheviks have had their names changed. Ukraine, in other words, shuns anything related to the occupiers and celebrates its nationalism.

In neighboring Belarus however, quite astonishingly, the opposite is true: The regime of Alexander Lukashenko, Vladimir Putin's ally, is working to pare down and restrict Belarusian culture. Absurdly, the Belarusian nation state has declared war on its own national culture.

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A few examples from December alone: The Justice Ministry in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, called for the closure of a volunteer organization that looks after cultural and heritage sites, the curator of 20th century Belarusian culture at the National Museum was thrown out of her job, but most symbolic of all has been the wholesale confiscation of books published in Belarusian by independent publishers. The publishers themselves had already been shut down.

According to Henadz Korshunau former head of the Institute of Sociology at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, anyone who now speaks or reads Belarusian, creates Belarusian music, or sells Belarusian artifacts in private shops, can now consider themselves part of a persecuted minority.

"From the start, Lukashenko considered any expression of Belarusian nationalism as hostile," Korshunau tells Israel Hayom in a call from Bialystok. "The ideological foundation of his regime is a return to the Soviet era, which in many respects was supranational. After taking office, Lukashenko scrapped the historic Belarusian white-red-white flag, while the post-Soviet revival of the Belarusian language was brought to a gradual end. In 2014 [following the Russian annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas – D.B.] when Lukashenko understood that Putin and his imperial worldview were a threat to him as well, the glass ceiling of supra-nationalism was lifted: Shops began to spring up selling the Belarusian and the history books no longer began with the Soviet Union but went back as far as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The Belarusian renaissance came to an end in one fell swoop in August 2020 when the Lukashenko regime falsified the results of the elections and hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets. "Even back then, there were already cases in which protesters speaking Belarusian were arrested, had a mark branded on their head, and were beaten up," recalls Korshunau.

Since then, Lukashenko has sought to repress any sign of nationalism associated with an independent civil society: Tour guides working in Belarusian were imprisoned; the historic Belarusian flag was made illegal; and the list of material considered to constitute incitement has grown and grown to include more and more Belarusian language and cultural paraphernalia and civil society activities in Belarusian.

1,000 organizations closed down

To put things in perspective, over the past two years, more than 1,000 organizations have been shut down or are in the process of being shut down. These range from the Belarusian Language Society to organizations with no political affiliation at all, such as ecological groups, NGOs helping the disabled, and publishers. The story of Yanuskevic publishing house is one such example. Andrej Yanuskevic founded it in 2014 and enjoyed stellar success in Belarus by publishing in the language of the small nation classics such as George Orwell's "1984" and Orhan Pamuk's "Istanbul", as well as three books from the Harry Potter series.

"Initial signs of repression began in November 2021. But it was only after the start of the war in March 2022 that the assault on the publishing house began," says Yanuskevic, talking from Warsaw where he is now based. "We were told to vacate our offices within two days. I thought it would be an opportunity to move out of my comfort zone and on May 16th we opened a bookstore belonging to the publishing house selling books in Belarusian. The store opened at 11 in the morning and by lunch, we received a visit from regime propagandists. By 6:30, it had been closed by injunction from the prosecutor's office because of complaints by 'concerned citizens.'"

Laughing bitterly, Yanuskevic recalls how police officers from the organized crime directorate collected the suspicious books including a children's book by the author Joseph Brodsky, 'Ballad About a Small Tugboat.' Why? Because of the ("sort of dark orange") color of the tugboat on the cover illustration on the cover which reminded the officers of the white and red of the national flag.

Yanuskevic was arrested and spent about a month in jail before being released and leaving for Poland. "This regime does not need Belarusian culture, except in the role of marginal popular culture. It is without a doubt an anti-Belarusian policy. Instead, the regime plants the 'Russian world' to make Belarus just another part of Western Russia."

Integration with Russia

Yanuskevic is referring to the increased presence of Putin's Russia in Belarus. Not only the use of its territory to attack Ukraine but also the opening of "Russian cultural houses," its propaganda of "traditional values," increased collaboration between the education systems of the two countries, and above all, the promotion of nostalgia for the Soviet Union and the common Soviet past with Russia – in propaganda, in public events, and in the way history is taught. Only recently, children from the town of Gomel in southeastern Belarus were required to write letters to Russian soldiers on the front as if they were Soviet children writing to their protectors from the Nazis.

"I'm not familiar with examples of a nation state annihilating its own national culture," says Korshunau, the sociologist. There are close examples such as North Korea, which preserves a Soviet-style regime. What is unique to Lukashenko is that he has not invented his own ideology. Theoretically, his regime should be nationalistic, but he is afraid of anything with a whiff of Belarusian to it. He wants to return to Stalinism."

Q: How similar is this to Putin who also seems to be promoting a version of Stalinism?

"Putin has gone much further back in history. His idols aren't so much Stalin but the tsars – Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. Lukashenko has gone back 100 years in time and Putin has gone back 300. Lukashenko supports socialism and internationalism, so from his point of view Belarus, Venezuela, Russia, and North Korea should be equal. From Putin's point of view Russia is an empire and other countries should be subordinate to it."

"Belarusians don't want to be part of the Russian Empire. We aren't willing to be and we never have been," Alina Koushyk, which is tasked with the national revival portfolio on behalf of the Belarus United Transitional Cabinet [the exiled government of the democratic forces, which won the 2020 elections – D.B], says unequivocally. The UTC has declared 2023 as the year of the Belarusian language. Throughout the year it will promote online Belarusian study events and will attempt to establish a network of Belarusian schools for exiles in Poland (as many as 150,000 Belarusian fled to Poland following the repression of the protests) and will print books in Belarusian.

"The initiative comes from the bottom-up and we merely support it," says Koushyk. "The language can be a source of strength and national identity and also a defense against the 'Russian world.' To tell the truth, every year should be the year of the Belarusian language."

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This year's Nobel Peace Prize is going to jailed Belarus rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties, the award's judges said Friday.

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Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the judges wanted to honor "three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence in the neighbor countries Belarus, Russia and Ukraine."

"Through their consistent efforts in favor of human values and anti-militarism and principles of law, this year's laureates have revitalized and honored Alfred Nobel's vision of peace and fraternity between nations, a vision most needed in the world today," she told reporters in Oslo.

The award follows a tradition of highlighting groups and activists trying to prevent conflicts, alleviate hardship and protect human rights.

Last year's winners have faced a tough time since receiving the prize. Journalists Dmitry Muratov of Russia and Maria Ressa of the Philippines have been fighting for the survival of their news organizations, defying government efforts to silence them

They were honored last year for "their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace."

A week of Nobel Prize announcements kicked off Monday with Swedish scientist Svante Paabo receiving the award in medicine for unlocking secrets of Neanderthal DNA that provided key insights into our immune system.

Three scientists jointly won the prize in physics Tuesday. Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John F. Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger had shown that tiny particles can retain a connection with each other even when separated, a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement, that can be used for specialized computing and to encrypt information.

The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded Wednesday to Americans Carolyn R. Bertozzi and K. Barry Sharpless, and Danish scientist Morten Meldal for developing a way of "snapping molecules together" that can be used to explore cells, map DNA and design drugs that can target diseases such as cancer more precisely.

French author Annie Ernaux won this year's Nobel Prize in literature Thursday. The panel commended her for blending fiction and autobiography in books that fearlessly mine her experiences as a working-class woman to explore life in France since the 1940s.

The 2022 Nobel Prize in economics will be announced on Monday.

The prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out on Dec. 10. The money comes from a bequest left by the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, in 1895.

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Russian and Ukrainian officials met for talks Monday amid high hopes but low expectations for any diplomatic breakthrough, after Moscow ran into unexpectedly stiff resistance when it unleashed the biggest land war in Europe since World War II.

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Outgunned Ukrainian forces managed slow the Russian advance and Western sanctions began to squeeze the Russian economy, but the Kremlin again raised the specter of nuclear war, reporting that its land, air and sea nuclear forces were on high alert following President Vladimir Putin's weekend order.

Still, a sliver of hope emerged as the first face-to-face talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials since the war began opened Monday. The delegations met at a long table on the Belarusian border with the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag on one side and the Russian tricolor on the other.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office said it would demand an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian troops.

But while Ukraine sent its defense minister and other top officials, the Russian delegation was led by Putin's adviser on culture – an unlikely envoy for ending the war and perhaps a sign of how seriously Moscow views the talks.

Putin told his French counterpart on Monday that the demilitarization of Ukraine and Western recognition of Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula were prerequisites to ending fighting in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

"Vladimir Putin stressed that a settlement is possible only if Russia's legitimate security interests are unconditionally taken into account, including the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the demilitarization and denazification of the Ukrainian state and ensuring its neutral status," according to a Kremlin readout of the call.

Senior advisers for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Joe Biden on Monday also agreed to intensify efforts for talks between Ukraine and Russia to yield a ceasefire, Turkish media reported.

In a call, Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan's chief adviser, and US national security adviser Jake Sullivan discussed the invasion and other regional issues, the private Demiroren News Agency (DHA) and others cited a statement as saying.

"It was agreed to intensity joint efforts for peace talks being held between Ukraine and the Russian Federation to yield results and for a ceasefire to be achieved," the statement said, according to DHA.

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The Arab League said in a communique Monday it supported all ongoing efforts to resolve the crisis "through dialogue and diplomacy."

The communique comes after a meeting of representatives of the 22-member Arab League in Cairo.

The communique didn't mention Russia, which has close ties with regional powers like Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

i24NEWS contributed to this report.

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My alarm clock in the city of Syeverodonetsk in the Luhansk state of eastern Ukraine was the thunder of artillery and shelling that starting to fall on the city. Outside the hotel, reporters gathered for a war council that looked like something out of a movie. The British reporters expressed a strong desire to stay. "You're just panicking," they said condescendingly to their Ukrainian guides, who were worried about their children's lives in cities like Kyiv and Kharkiv.

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The decision to return to Kyiv was made quickly, and within minutes we were on route to the capital, a nine-hour trip on the unstable roads of the eastern part of the country. Kyiv had already been bombed at that point. It was comforting to turn onto the highway, but very soon that turned out to be a mistake – a shell landed in the middle of the road, not far from the vehicle in which my Ukrainian escorts and I were riding.

Other than some ringing in the ears, no damage was done. But later on, we encountered a horrific scene – a car whose occupants had been hit by shelling. Along the way, we passed airfields and military sites that were on fire after Russian airstrikes. Above, jet engines roared. In the village of Novoshtovske in the Luhansk district, located a few hundred meters from the front with the pro-Russian separatist forces, there were reports of heavy shelling that morning.

"There is no electricity or water, phone lines are cut off, and the shelling doesn't stop," said Dasha, who works in the village as an English teacher. "We're scared and anxious about what will happen net."

In the village of Andriivka in eastern Ukraine, civilians were lining up to use the only ATM in town and stock up at the little shop.

"Everything is so scary, but we need to take care of ourselves," said Louisa, who was waiting to make her purchases. "Our army will do everything to defend us. I want the world to watch and see what's happening to us. It could happen to any country."

Long lines of cars waited to fill up at the gas station, and most stations in eastern Ukraine had already run out.

Maidan Square in Kyiv, where demonstrations put Ukraine on a collision course with Moscow in 2014, was empty. Troops were deployed around it, and a nighttime curfew was in effect. The shops, malls, and restaurants around the lovely square were all closed, and other than a small shwarma stand, there was no place for a hungry foreigner to eat. Above us, fighter jets screamed by.

"I have nothing to fear," said Ibrahim, the shwarma vendor, originally from Sudan. "I'm a little person. What do I care if it's Russia or Ukraine, or whoever, in charge here? I'll probably keep living the same way."

Oksana, a Kyiv resident who was waiting behind me, struggled to hold back tears.

"Everything we've worked for in the last eight years will be for nothing if we lose. Our liberty, our independence, our freedom of speech. We'll be another Russia, just with a different flag, like Belarus," she says.

As darkness descended on the city and the curfew approached, the few foreigners gathered in the hotel, hoping to find a way to be evacuated the next morning. The world has left Ukraine to its fate, and now even journalists are afraid to stay.

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Maya Reiten, an Israeli woman who was arrested last month for cannabis possession in Belarus, has been freed from custody and is on her way to Israel, according to a joint statement by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman on Thursday.

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"Maya Reiten was released from prison in Belarus and is making her way to Israel with her brother," Lapid said and thanked President Isaac Herzog for helping to bring the woman back.
Lieberman and other officials from the Foreign Ministry were also involved in the efforts.

Reiten, a lawyer, was arrested on Nov. 4 at an airport in Minsk after authorities discovered 2.5 grams of cannabis in her luggage even though she has medical authorization to use the drug. Marijuana is illegal in the Eastern European country and being found in possession of it could potentially carry a five-year prison sentence.

The Israeli woman was permitted to return after paying a $2,500 fine.

Israeli programmer Dmitry (Daniel) Plashinskiy remains in custody in Belarus after he was arrested on Dec. 8 for allegedly following the opposition's Telegram pages that have been outlawed by President Alexander Lukashenko. Plashinskiy also has Belarusian citizenship.

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The Israeli Embassy in Minsk expressed formal protest Monday after the state-affiliated SB daily used the Hatikvah national anthem for part of a video on the migrant crisis on the Belarus-Poland border. 

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The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that "relevant authorities" had been informed of the incident.

The one-and-a-half-long video includes footage of migrants enduring freezing conditions, with no running water, forced to wash their hands and clothes using water from bottles. The recording was removed shortly after, presumably at the behest of senior government officials. 

Thousands of migrants, mostly from Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, have amassed at Belarus' western border with Poland in the hope of crossing into the European Union. 

The bloc accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging masses to cross into Poland and other member states in order to spark a humanitarian crisis within the EU. 

As for SB, the paper has a history of antisemitic rhetoric. In October, opinion-writer Andrey Mukovozchik brought his readers' attention to the (Jewish-sounding) last names of regime critics Shraibman and Katz. Artyom Shraibman is a highly-respected political analyst and Maxim Katz is a Jewish political blogger who currently lives in Moscow. 

And although Mukovozchik did not specify, it was abundantly clear who he was referring to when he said last year's mass protests were organized by "non-Belarusian instigators."

In another piece, on popular blogger and regime-critic Yevgeny Lipkovich, Mukovozchik reminded him of pogroms and recommended he leave Belarus and move to Israel.

On Monday evening, SB said in a statement it had "no connection to the video." 

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Migrants trapped in Belarus made multiple attempts to force their way into Poland overnight, Warsaw said on Wednesday, announcing that it had reinforced the border as the European Union prepares to impose sanctions on Belarus over the crisis.

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The bloc's 27 ambassadors are set to agree on Wednesday that the growing numbers of migrants flying to Belarus to reach the EU border amount to "hybrid warfare" by President Alexander Lukashenko – a legal basis for new sanctions.

"Mr. Lukashenko ...unscrupulously exploits people seeking refuge as hostages for his cynical power play," Germany's acting Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter.

He described images from the Belarusian border, where people are stuck in freezing conditions with little food and shelter, as "horrific" but said the EU could not be blackmailed.

The EU accuses Belarus of encouraging the migrants – from the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Africa – to try to illegally cross the frontier in revenge for earlier sanctions imposed on Minsk over human rights abuses.

Lukashenko has denied using the migrants as weapons and on Wednesday won a fresh show of support from his most powerful ally, Russia, which blamed the EU for the crisis and sent two strategic bombers to patrol Belarusian airspace.

"It is apparent that a humanitarian catastrophe is looming against the background of Europeans' reluctance to demonstrate commitment to their European values," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, urging Moscow to put pressure on Belarus over the situation at the border, a German government spokesperson said. Putin's office said he suggested to Merkel that EU members discuss the crisis directly with Minsk.

Thousands of people have converged on the border this week, where razor wire fences and Polish soldiers have repeatedly blocked their entry. Some of the migrants have used logs, spades, and other implements to try to break through.

"It was not a calm night. Indeed, there were many attempts to breach the Polish border," Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told broadcaster PR1.

Video from the border obtained by Reuters showed young children and babies among the people stuck there.

"There are lots of families here with babies between two or four months old. They have not eaten anything for the past three days," the person who provided the video told Reuters, saying they were a migrant themselves and declining to be named.

The Polish border guards service reported 599 illegal border-crossing attempts on Tuesday, with 9 people detained and 48 sent back. Blaszczak said the force of Polish soldiers stationed at the border had been strengthened to 15,000 from 12,000.

After midnight, two groups of migrants were turned back. One that was around 200 people near the town of Bialowieza and another of around two dozen was turned back near Dubicze Cerkiewne, a spokeswoman told Reuters.

Neighboring EU state Lithuania, which followed in Poland's footsteps by imposing a state of emergency at its border on Tuesday, reported 281 migrants were turned back that day, the highest figure since August when such pushbacks began.

The EU accuses Lukashenko of using "gangster-style" tactics in the months-long border standoff, in which at least seven migrants have died. The new EU sanctions would target around 30 individuals and entities including the Belarusian foreign minister, three EU diplomats told Reuters. 

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Lukashenko's government blames Europe and the United States for the plight of the people stranded at the border.

The crisis erupted after the EU, United States and Britain imposed sanctions on Belarus over its violent crackdown on mass street protests that were sparked by Lukashenko's disputed election victory in 2020.

Lukashenko turned to traditional ally Russia for support and financing to ride out the protests. The migrant crisis has given Moscow an opportunity to double down on its support for Belarus, a country it regards as a strategic buffer against NATO, and criticize the EU.

Peskov accused the EU of trying to "strangle" Belarus.

Poland denies accusations by humanitarian groups that it is violating the international right to asylum by hustling migrants back into Belarus instead of accepting their applications for protection. Warsaw says its actions are legal.

Some migrants have complained of being repeatedly pushed back and forth by Polish and Belarusian border guards, putting them at risk of exposure, lack of food and water.

"Yesterday we helped to secure and evacuate one group of immigrants," said Michal Swiatkowski, 30, a member of the Polish Red Cross rescue group from Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski.

"There were 16 people, most of them were children. They did not require medical attention, although we donated warm clothes, blankets, and some food," he told Reuters.

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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday called on member states to impose new sanctions against Belarus, alleging the country is responsible for an influx of migrants at the Polish border.

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Polish police posted video early Tuesday showing a group of migrants who had camped overnight just on the far side of Poland's eastern border in Belarus. Polish riot police and coils of razor wire faced the migrants and police said the situation overnight was calm.

That followed a day of heavy tensions on the border, where a large group of migrants – hundreds if not thousands of people mostly from the Middle East and encouraged by Belarus – sought to illegally push their way into Poland.

The use "of migrants for political purposes is unacceptable," she said, adding that the EU would also look at how to sanction "third-country airlines" that bring migrants to Belarus. The EU accused Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko of weaponizing migrant flows in retaliation for sanctions imposed by Brussels, an accusation the leader denies.

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Lithuania on Thursday sent five Afghan migrants back to Belarus shortly after they had crossed the border despite the European Court of Human Rights earlier saying they should be allowed to stay. Lithuania has been pushing back migrants since early August and only a few dozen have been allowed in.

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More than 4,100 migrants from the Middle East and South Asia have entered Lithuania this year, and the European Union has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of sending them over its borders with EU nations in retaliation for sanctions imposed by the bloc on the Minsk government.

Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite told Reuters she saw the case as "an obvious attempt to open a new route for illegal migration, by manipulating the Afghanistan events".

In 2016, following its intervention in the Syria war, Western states accused Russia of deliberately encouraging migrants to flood into Europe, fueling the rise of the far-Right and challenging the European Union. If Belarus believes it can do the same to its immediate neighbors it blames for political discontent at home, it is likely to keep doing so.

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