(29 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bialowieza Forest, Poland – 29 May 2024
1. Various of Polish soldier standing guard behind barbed wire guarding the border with Belarus next to the steel fence
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dubicze Cerkiewne, Poland – 29 May 2024
2. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Donald Tusk, Poland’s Prime Minister:
"Today we have been recommended by those who serve with you here on a daily basis that we restore the buffer zone as soon as possible in this 200-meter wide strip where it is necessary from the point of view of the effective operation of the services of the Polish state at the border."
3. Wide of Tusk with servicemen talking
4. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Donald Tusk, Poland’s Prime Minister:
"Polish troops, border guards, officers have become the targets of aggression."
5. Wide of Tusk with servicemen talking
6. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Donald Tusk, Poland’s Prime Minister:
"You have every right, not to say an obligation, to use every means available to you… when you are defending not only the border but also your own life."
7. Various of military servicemen next to border command post
STORYLINE:
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday that its forces would further fortify the border with Belarus and can use “all available means” to defend the NATO nation’s frontier, after a soldier was seriously wounded with a knife by a migrant.
Tusk said that a buffer zone some 200 meters (660 feet) wide would be set up along the border, which is also the European Union’s eastern frontier, in addition to a 190-kilometer (118-mile) long metal barrier already in place intended to prevent an influx of migrants crossing from Belarus.
Poland says the pressure of illegal migration is concerted by Belarus and Russia.
Tusk said the government will make a decision on the buffer zone at its Tuesday session.
Tusk, together with the defence and interior ministers, visited troops, border guards and police forces securing the border following a knife attack on a soldier early Tuesday near the village of Dubicze Cerkiewne.
Officials said the soldier remains hospitalized in serious condition.
They said a migrant reached across the bars of the more than 5-meter (16-foot) high metal wall separating Poland and Belarus and stabbed the soldier in the ribs.
Polish security forces were not able to detain the attacker because he was on the Belarus side of the barrier, officials said.
Tusk said, “Polish troops, border guards, officers have become the targets of aggression and you have every right, not to say an obligation, to use every means available to you… when you are defending not only the border but also your own life."
Tusk and Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said that additional police and military forces will be sent to the area.
The pro-EU government says the pressure and aggression of illegal migration is rising, organized by Russia and Belarus to destabilize Europe as Moscow wages war on Ukraine.
Poland’s authorities say migrants groups now mainly include young men, compared to families with women and children previously.
More than 13,000 attempts at illegal crossing were registered so far this year, a rise from the same period last year.
AP Video shot by Rafal Niedzielski
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