Polish PM points to Russia amid standoff at Belarus border

Poland’s prime minister has told parliament that the country faces a threat from Russia and Belarus

WARSAW, Poland -- Poland's prime minister told parliament Monday that the country faces a threat from Russia and Belarus as he sought support for a state of emergency declared in areas along the border with Belarus last week amid migration pressure. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki spoke in parliament before lawmakers were due to vote on whether to approve the state of emergency that was declared last week by the president — a step unprecedented in the country's post-communist history. Morawiecki told the parliament that the defense of the Polish borders is the responsibility of the state, and that Poland was seeing “scenarios written in Moscow and Minsk that threaten our sovereignty." Poland, Lithuania and Latvia — the three European Union nations that border Belarus — accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of pushing migrants from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere into their countries illegally. They call it an act of “hybrid war” against their countries in revenge for EU sanctions.