Ukraine vows to guard border over possible migrant influx from Belarus

By Olga Tokariuk

Kiev, Nov 15 (EFE).- Ukraine was working to reinforce its border with Belarus on Monday in order to keep migrants from illegally entering the country.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), said during a press conference in the city of Lutsk, located near the Ukraine-Belarus border, that authorities in Kiev are considering different scenarios.

“This situation might affect us directly, that’s why we have to resort to all necessary measures to get prepared,” Danilov added in the media event that was held after a meeting between the NSDC heads, ministers of interior and defense, ambassadors of Poland and Lithuania to Ukraine, as well as local authorities.

A state of emergency may be introduced in five Ukrainian regions bordering Belarus if the situation deteriorates, according to Interior Minister Denis Monastirskii.

Danilov said the situation at the Belarusian border with Poland was “not a humanitarian crisis, but rather another special operation of the Russian Federation, aimed at destabilizing the situation in Europe and at our border.”

In his press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba explained the situation should be seen as part of other Russian actions, such as its military buildup at the Ukrainian border and attempts to instrumentalize the oil crisis in Europe.

Earlier, Poland and the European Union accused Belarus and Russia of manufacturing a border crisis by bringing migrants from the Middle East and Africa to Belarus and pushing them towards the EU border.

However, at the time there was no imminent threat of migrants breaching the border with Ukraine from Belarus, according to Ivan Bakano, the head of Ukraine’s Security Services (SBU).

“This is a well-prepared special operation of Russian and Belarusian special services which aims at pressuring the EU countries.