We offer them dialogue, they give us ultimatums. Is Warsaw interested in solving migrant crisis on border with Belarus?

The question of what Poland wants is akin to a question of whether there is life on Mars. For the fourth year, Polish officials have been spinning the migrant drama. The genre has undergone some changes. There were elements of a thriller featuring the Polish army on the border, a horror with murdered and maimed refugees, a comedy with a Polish voyage to China. But no matter plot twists and changes in the cast, Warsaw continues to declare its commitment to resolving the migrant crisis on the border with Belarus.

“Everything is possible,” Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk told Reuters as recently as last week. “We are ready for any solution in this area, because we will not allow this migration crisis caused by Belarus to last indefinitely,” the official asserted.

Poland’s imitation of hegemony...

According to him, Warsaw was also sending a clear political message that the current situation "cannot last forever”.

It would seem the Polish drama has reached its climax. Minsk said it was open to dialogue and invited the Poles to map out plans to solve the problems by joint efforts. “The ball is in the Polish court. Belarus is ready for dialogue, and the president is as committed to it,” Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maksim Ryzhenkov said this week.

The minister recalled that the West was spinning a lot of fake stories about camps in Belarus that train migrants to cross the border illegally. But the position of the Belarusian leadership is clear: put the facts on the table!

“We invite any organizations, representatives of the EU countries, who are based here, to come to the border, to look, talk, discuss, outline some steps,” the Belarusian diplomat added.

It would seem that the matter is moving towards a resolution, and that the Polish leadership, as promised, will do “everything possible”. But it did not happen. After taking a couple of days to think it over, Warsaw suddenly came out with “a set of conditions”.

Logic is such: if Minsk wants to help the Poles solve the migrant crisis, it must fulfill Poland’s conditions. Marvelous, isn’t it?

Apparently, we can view the statement by Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Pawel Wronski as a response to Minsk's proposal. He urged “to put an end to the hybrid attack” and “to stop bringing migrants to the border”. However, he later admitted: “There is some progress here, the inflow of migrants has recently decreased.”

“The second condition is to investigate the murder of a Polish soldier and to extradite the person who committed this crime,” Pawel Wronski continued. According to him, there are “signs that” Belarus knows who it might be.

Pawel Wronski also highlighted Poland's stance on Andrei Pochobut, convicted in Belarus. “We are waiting for the first real step from Belarus,” he said.

It is impossible to find any sense in the conditions set by Poland as there is simply none. Apparently, that was the idea. Warsaw understands perfectly well that there are no hybrid attacks, no deliberate sending of migrants to the border. According to Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, the migrant flow across the Belarusian-Polish border is weaker today than it was before 2020. Back then, no one in Warsaw spoke about migrant problems on Belarusian-Polish border. Poland itself has recently officially confirmed that the inflow of migrants decreased.

As for the death of the Polish soldier at the border, who, according to Poland, was killed by a migrant, the Belarusian State Border Committee declared its readiness for both unilateral and bilateral investigations into the incident. Yet, Poland needs to provide the information about the circumstances of the tragedy.

The conditions Poland puts forward in respect to Andrei Pochobut do not stand up to criticism either. Andrei Pochobut, who has dual citizenship of Belarus and Poland, has been sentenced to eight years in prison by the Grodno Oblast court. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko previously made it clear that Belarus has no intention to exchange Andrei Pochobut for the removal of restrictions at checkpoints on the Belarusian-Polish border. “This is unacceptable,” the president said. “I am not going to exchange a piece of border for a person.”

The list of Warsaw’s demands goes on and on. The Polish elites have a lot of ambitions, both in the external and internal political arena. One thing is obvious. At this very stage Poland is not interested in solving the migrant crisis. It seems that this Polish drama will take another several seasons. As long as the story garners attention, Warsaw will be working to capitalize on it.

BelTA – News from Belarus