Another Provocation at the EU Border: Belarusian Forces Assist Illegals to Cross the Fence into Latvia
Representatives of the Belarusian government aided four individuals in illegally entering Latvia on Sunday, August 6, according to the State Border Guard Service.
During border monitoring using technical means, border guards in Kaplava spotted several individuals who had illegally entered Latvia.
"Representatives of the Belarusian government assisted illegals in overcoming the fence by cutting the wires in the permanent fence structure and subsequently closing the hole that had formed in the fence, preventing the men who had illegally entered Latvia from returning to Belarus," the statement read.
Latvian border guards referred to this as yet another provocation.
All violators of the border, as provided by the normative-legal basis of the National Security, were detained and returned to the country of departure.
"People were interviewed, but due to the current extraordinary order, they were sent back to Belarus. Previous conclusions were already made that Belarusian services not only fail to obstruct but also organize the illegal crossing of the border from Belarus to Latvia, thus regularly destabilizing the security situation near the border," stated Gunits Pudjats, the head of the State Border Guard Service.
Recalling that since the summer of 2021, the number of migrants attempting to illegally enter Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland from Belarus has significantly increased. Officials from the Baltic countries and Poland have claimed that the Belarusian authorities deliberately do not hinder the border crossings to punish these nations for supporting the Belarusian opposition and for sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko's regime.
The European Union characterizes such actions as the deployment of hybrid warfare.
Security risks have been further intensified by Russia's war against Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, also backed by Belarus. Starting from August 10, 2021, the Latvian government declared a state of emergency in the Ludza and Kraslava regions, as well as in Daugavpils. The regime was extended multiple times, most recently extended until August 10.
From the beginning of this year until last Thursday, Latvian border guards managed to prevent 5285 individuals from illegally crossing the border between Latvia and Belarus, while 263 individuals were admitted to Latvia for humanitarian reasons.
