(United Nations) Russia and Belarus are not helping migrants to flock to the border between this country and Poland, said on Thursday the deputy Russian ambassador to the UN, while also assuring that his country did not had no plan to invade Ukraine.
“No, absolutely not,” diplomat Dmitry Polyanskiy said of possible aid to migrants before an emergency closed-door Security Council meeting called at the request of Estonia, France and of Ireland on the migration crisis on the border between Belarus and Poland.
Russian planes in Belarus
Asked about the movements of fighter planes observed in the skies of Belarus, Dmitry Polyanskiy explained that it was a “response to the massive deployment” of armed Polish guards on the Polish-Belarusian border.
ARCHIVE PHOTO DISTRIBUTED BY THE RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY
Russian air force TU-160 bombers similar to this one were seen in the skies of Belarus.
“We have obligations within the framework of the unity between Russia and Belarus,” he added. “If there is a concentration of military resources on the border with Belarus, we must react. These are just reconnaissance flights, nothing more, it’s a normal activity, ”he insisted.
Migrants “are people who have come to Belarus legally and are seeking to enter European countries, especially Germany. They are not allowed to cross the border, are pursued, beaten. It is a total shame and a complete violation of international conventions, ”said Dmitry Polyanskiy, judging that a way out of the crisis can only go through dialogue.
The Russian diplomat criticized the lack of transparency on the Polish side on the crisis, where, at the border, he said, journalists and NGOs do not have access unlike, according to him, to the side of the border of Belarus.
Referring to a “masochistic inclination”, the deputy Russian ambassador also considered that the Europeans’ request for a seizure of the Security Council was “shameful”.
Estonia, France and Ireland were to, after the emergency meeting, issue a joint statement with the United States, Norway and the United Kingdom on the migration crisis between Belarus and Poland.
Troop movements near Ukraine
Asked whether the deployment of Russian military forces on Russia’s border with Ukraine meant that Moscow intended to invade Ukraine, Dmitry Polyanskiy assured that “it had never been planned”.
“Remember that the American warships in the Black Sea are acting in a very provocative way,” he said. “It is more and more difficult every day to avoid a direct conflict in the Black Sea,” added the diplomat. “We have the right to concentrate troops where we want, it is not Ukrainian territory, it is Russian territory,” he insisted.