Clash at Poland-Belarus border stoking international tensions

Embattled migrants from the Middle East are desperate to enter the European Union but are being exploited by the Belarusian government of Alexander Lukashenko in a geopolitical gambit that is causing major tensions on the European Union and NATO’s eastern borders.

Europe faced a much larger wave of migrants in 2015 and 2016, mainly fueled by the Syrian civil war. The influx of migrants at that time led to a surge in support for xenophobic populist and nationalist leaders who railed against immigrants, claiming they are a threat to their national identity. Lukashenko knows this, and his ploy is to sow chaos and fear over another migrant crisis that will undermine European Union cohesion.

Lukashenko is conducting this high-stakes gamble with the EU in an attempt to have a series of sanctions lifted that were imposed following the regime's brutal crackdown of mass protests over the disputed August 2020 presidential election in which Lukashenko claimed victory with 80% of the vote and many international observers considered fraudulent. Poland is also a vocal supporter of the pro-democracy movement that emerged in Belarus and vowed to stand in solidarity with the political opposition to Lukashenko.