Putin sends NUCLEAR BOMBERS over Belarus to support Lukashenko as it is claimed Minsk 'handpicked' Afghan and Iraqi war vets to pose among mob of 2,000 attacking Polish border - while migrants say 'half of these people are going to the UK'
Vladimir Putin has sent nuclear bombers over the skies of Belarus as migrants on the Polish border try to flee towards Britain and escape alleged beatings from Alexander Lukashenko's soldiers.
Two supersonic Tu-22M3 bombers performed 'tasks of combat alert for air defence' in support of the Belarus leader, the Russian defence ministry said in response to the rising tensions on the border.
Footage has shown Belarusian soldiers firing shots to intimidate terrified women and children desperately trying to escape and head towards Britain for safety, one of the estimated 2,000 migrants said.
Western governments accuse Belarusian strongman Lukashenko of luring the migrants, mostly from the Middle East, to his country and sending them to cross into Poland to provoke a renewed European migrant crisis in retaliation for sanctions imposed against him for his brutal crackdown of protesters.
The EU accused Belarus of carrying out state-sponsored 'trafficking' and said for the first time they were considering the idea of funding the construction of a wall or some other barrier on its eastern border.
Belarus's former ambassador to France and Poland claims the migrants are Afghan and Iraqi war veterans trained by Lukashenko's special forces.
Pavel Latushka who fled to Warsaw after joining Belarus's pro-democracy movement added that the tactics were 'a form of Nazi-era propaganda.'
Speaking amid the border crisis, one unnamed male said even though the UK is no longer in the EU, Britain was the real target for half of those now trying to flee.
'Half of these people are going to UK,' the man said in clear English during an interview with Russian state-run news outlet RIA Novosti.
'They are not staying in Germany, nor Poland,' he insisted. 'We've got nobody, not even one person stay in Poland.'
Meanwhile, a man who claims he was beaten by Belarusian border guards was named as Youssef Atallah, a migrant from Syria.
A portrait photograph was released of Mr Atallah showing heavy bruising around his eyes and a broken nose. Both his eyes had also haemorrhaged.
The West has accused Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko of 'weaponising' migrants from Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East by enabling them to fly to his country before seeking to break into the EU.
Pictured: Two long-range Tu-22M3 bombers of the Russian Aerospace Forces filmed reportedly entering the airspace of Belarus north of Gomel on November 10, 2021
The Russian defence ministry said the mission involving two giant supersonic strategic warplanes (pictured) were 'performing tasks of combat alert for air defence in the Unified Regional Air Defense System of the Union State (of Russia and Belarus'
A man at Poland's border with Belarus (pictured in a video grab) has said in an interview that many migrants on the Polish border hope to reach Britain after passing through the EU
Pictured: Youssef Atallah, a migrant from Syria who claims he was beaten by Belarusian border guards at the Polish border. A portrait photograph was released of Mr Atallah showing heavy bruising around his haemorrhaged eyes and broken nose
Thousands of migrants are now camped along the Polish border, with the EU saying they are being forced to attempt illegal crossings by Lukashenko's regime as part of a 'hybrid attack'The unnamed man at the border told RIA Novosti the migrants were expecting the Red Cross to deliver supplies, including water and food, 'especially for the kids.'
'The kids need milk, the babies, and we've got no water to make milk for them. That's good news about them bringing water and food,' he said.
Photographs later showed workers from Belarusian Red Cross distributing supplies to a crowd of migrants from a white van.
He went on to say that he understood that officials from Germany would take them across the border 'splitting them into other countries like France, Germany, Holland,' but said that half of the migrants at the border wanted to make it to the UK.
Speaking as tensions on the Polish-Belarus border dangerously escalate, former Belarus ambassador Latushka told EUobserver: 'The migration crisis is being used by Lukashenko to insert into EU territory people who have [military] experience and who additionally undertook training on Belarusian territory to realise terrorist acts.
'Next, Lukashenko will go for a local military conflict on the EU border, and in the meantime he will sell the picture to the world about a humanitarian crisis, the Europeans being to blame.'
He added that the migrant 'veterans' had been handpicked and flown to Belarus between July and September.
According to the former ambassador, the migrants were trained at a base near the village of Opsa, in north-west Belarus, which was carried out with the help of Belarus's special forces from the 'Marjina Horka' brigade.
He added that the brigade had fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s with advisers from Russia's 'GRU' military intelligence.
The news comes as Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller said: 'We expect there could be an escalation of ... an armed nature any time soon on the Polish border.'
Meanwhile Polish media has reported that weapons captured from Afghanistan were delivered to Belarus by two IL-76 military aviation planes in early November.
Former ambassador Latushka said his information came from 'sources high-up in Belarusian intelligence services', but added: 'I cannot give any names or documents regarding this, as people are at the highest risk - for passing on this information they would face the death penalty.'
Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in Berlin that Minsk is engaged in 'state-run smuggling and trafficking ... happening 100% at the expense of the people who are lured into the country with false promises.'
This week the focus has been on the border with Poland, but the EU is also concerned about landlocked Belarus frontiers with Latvia and Lithuania.
Pictured: Belarusian Red Cross employees hand out humanitarian aid to migrants in a tent camp on the Belarusian-Polish border
Vladimir Putin sent two supersonic jets over the skies of the border to signal his support for Lukashenko (pictured together)Earlier, a video showed Belarusian troops firing gunshots close to a terrified group of migrants at the Polish border, hours before the desperate refugees made fresh attempts to break through barbed wire fences and into the EU.
Video captured by Polish guards showed people, including women and children, lined up along a border fence on the Belarusian side before the sound of a soldier cocking and firing his rifle is heard.
Amid screams from the migrants, two more soldiers can be seen kicking and hitting them before one drops to his knee and raises his gun at them. A Polish soldier can be heard calling to his squad-mate: 'Come, we have to step back!'
Poland released the footage to rubbish claims by Belarus that it was Polish soldiers who had fired the shots, as Minsk tries to discredit its rivals in Warsaw as part of a 'hybrid attack' on the EU using migrants as a weapon.
Amid a rush of migrant crossings overnight Belarus released footage of what it claimed was four Kurdish migrants beaten bloody by guards - though video seen by MailOnline appears fake and Poland has denounced it as 'propaganda'.
Polish border guards captured the moment Belarusian troops at the border fired shots near a group of terrified migrants, then kicked and pointed their weapons at them
In it, the four men can be seen in a campsite - one lying in a tent, another sitting by a campfire, a third crouching in a tent doorway, and a fourth squatting on the floor.
All four men are hiding their faces - possibly to conceal their identities - with injuries only visible on three of them, some of which seemed to be made with prosthetics.
The injuries are also being displayed openly to the camera, with seemingly no serious attempt having been made to bandage them.
There are now thousands of desperate people camped out along the Polish border, with the EU saying they were lured to Belarus on false promises of passage to Europe then marched to the border and forced to make illegal crossings.
Merkel spoke by phone with Putin on Wednesday. 'I asked him to exert his influence on President Lukashenko, because people are being used here,' she said.
'They are victims of an inhuman policy, and something must be done against this,' Merkel said in Meseberg, near Berlin. Speaking ahead of a meeting with Latvian and Portuguese leaders, Merkel thanked Poland, Lithuania and Latvia for protecting the EU's external borders.
Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins added that 'it is what I would call a state-sponsored human trafficking, which is affecting directly my country, Lithuania and Poland.'
The Kremlin's account of the call with Merkel said Putin proposed a discussion between 'representatives of EU member states and Minsk.' It also said Putin and Merkel 'agreed to continue the conversation.'
Poland says it has an 'obligation' as an EU member to protect the bloc's border from 'attacks' by Belarus, using migrants as a weapon (pictured, Polish border guards)
Belarus released footage of what it claimed were refugees beaten bloody by border guards, but the footage appears to be fake and Poland has denounced it as 'propaganda'
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected suggestions by Morawiecki that Moscow has any responsibility in the crisis, calling them 'absolutely irresponsible and unacceptable.' Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also has suggested the EU give Belarus financial aid to stop the migrant flow.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with President Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday and said the White House was aiming to levy new sanctions on the Lukashenko regime by early December.
U.S. Treasury Department officials have already begun working on the sanctions and are looking to unveil them as Europe moves forward with its own, said a White House official who was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Von der Leyen said she also discussed with Biden the possibility of the U.S. and Europe levying sanctions against airlines that play a role in the influx of migrants through Belarus. Von der Leyen said they shared the assessment that 'this is an attempt by an authoritarian regime to try to destabilize democratic neighbors. This will not succeed.'
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met in Washington with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, said 'the idea that Belarus would weaponize migration is profoundly objectionable.'
'We will continue to pressure Lukashenko and the regime, and we will not lessen our calls for accountability,' he added. Kuleba said Belarus 'is a potential front line that should not be underestimated.'European Council President Charles Michel met in Warsaw with Morawiecki in a gesture of solidarity, saying: 'We are facing a hybrid, brutal, violent and unworthy attack, and we can only reply to this with firmness and unity, in accordance with our core values.'
Michel also said the EU is discussing the possibility of funding 'physical infrastructure' on its external borders. The EU's executive commission has long held that walls and barriers are not effective and has refused to fund them with money from the bloc. It would only pay for security cameras and surveillance equipment, not walls, fences and other physical infrastructure.
Now, it is facing pressure by several member countries to do so, as Poland and Lithuania have already moved ahead with plans to build high barriers of steel and razor wire.
Poland said more than 250 people attempted the crossing between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, with dozens making it. Around 50 were found and arrested near the town of Białowieża early today, with more being sought.
'It was not a calm night. Indeed, there were many attempts to breach the Polish border,' Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told broadcaster PR1.
Polish private radio RMF said around 200 people had tried to breach the border on Tuesday afternoon, and a second group of around 60 had tried after midnight.
Blaszczak said all those who tried to cross were detained, and that the force of Polish soldiers stationed at the border had been strengthened to 15,000 from 12,000.
Three EU diplomats told Reuters on late on Tuesday that the bloc was close imposing more sanctions on Belarus over the escalating crisis, targeting around 30 individuals and entities including the Belarusian foreign minister.
Germany's acting Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter on Wednesday the images from the Belarusian border were 'horrific'.
'Mr. Lukashenko ...unscrupulously exploits people seeking refuge as hostages for his cynical power play... But the European Union cannot be blackmailed.' he said.
Maas said the EU would not leave anyone in need alone.
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Another video released on Wednesday reportedly showed Russian Tu-22M3 nuclear bombers patrolling the skies over Belarus amid rising tension with the West.
The Russian defence ministry said the mission involving two giant supersonic strategic warplanes were 'performing tasks of combat alert for air defence in the Unified Regional Air Defense System of the Union State (of Russia and Belarus'.
The bombers 'performed patrols in the airspace of the Republic of Belarus. During the flight of the aircraft, the issues of interaction with ground control points of the armed forces of Russia and Belarus were worked out'.
This came as Russia lambasted the Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki for blaming Vladimir Putin for the border crisis with migrants in Belarus.
'We consider absolutely irresponsible and unacceptable the Polish prime minister's words that Russia is responsible for this situation,' said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. This is an absolutely irresponsible and unacceptable statement.'
Armed soldiers stand guard close to Poland's border with Belarus, with Warsaw saying there are now 15,000 troops and guards stationed thereEuropean Council President Charles Michel met in Warsaw with Morawiecki in a gesture of solidarity, saying: 'We are facing a hybrid, brutal, violent and unworthy attack, and we can only reply to this with firmness and unity, in accordance with our core values.'
Michel also said the EU is discussing the possibility of funding 'physical infrastructure' on its external borders. The EU's executive commission has long held that walls and barriers are not effective and has refused to fund them with money from the bloc. It would only pay for security cameras and surveillance equipment, not walls, fences and other physical infrastructure.
Now, it is facing pressure by several member countries to do so, as Poland and Lithuania have already moved ahead with plans to build high barriers of steel and razor wire.
Poland said more than 250 people attempted the crossing between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, with dozens making it. Around 50 were found and arrested near the town of Białowieża early today, with more being sought.
'It was not a calm night. Indeed, there were many attempts to breach the Polish border,' Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told broadcaster PR1.
Polish private radio RMF said around 200 people had tried to breach the border on Tuesday afternoon, and a second group of around 60 had tried after midnight.
Blaszczak said all those who tried to cross were detained, and that the force of Polish soldiers stationed at the border had been strengthened to 15,000 from 12,000.
Three EU diplomats told Reuters on late on Tuesday that the bloc was close imposing more sanctions on Belarus over the escalating crisis, targeting around 30 individuals and entities including the Belarusian foreign minister.
Germany's acting Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter on Wednesday the images from the Belarusian border were 'horrific'.
'Mr. Lukashenko ...unscrupulously exploits people seeking refuge as hostages for his cynical power play... But the European Union cannot be blackmailed.' he said.
Maas said the EU would not leave anyone in need alone.
Another video released on Wednesday reportedly showed Russian Tu-22M3 nuclear bombers patrolling the skies over Belarus amid rising tension with the West.
The Russian defence ministry said the mission involving two giant supersonic strategic warplanes were 'performing tasks of combat alert for air defence in the Unified Regional Air Defense System of the Union State (of Russia and Belarus'.
The bombers 'performed patrols in the airspace of the Republic of Belarus. During the flight of the aircraft, the issues of interaction with ground control points of the armed forces of Russia and Belarus were worked out'.
This came as Russia lambasted the Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki for blaming Vladimir Putin for the border crisis with migrants in Belarus.
'We consider absolutely irresponsible and unacceptable the Polish prime minister's words that Russia is responsible for this situation,' said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. This is an absolutely irresponsible and unacceptable statement.'
Armed soldiers stand guard close to Poland's border with Belarus, with Warsaw saying there are now 15,000 troops and guards stationed thereLukashenko issued the fiery statement following a phone call with Putin, during which the pair discussed the crisis.
Belarusian state news agency Belta reported the phone call, saying the two leaders had discussed Polish troop movements at the border and were concerned.
'A special place in the conversation was taken by the discussion of the situation on the Belarusian-Polish border, as well as the tough actions of the Polish side in relation to civilians,' Belta said.
'At the same time, it was emphasised, the fact of regular Polish troops gathering on the border was of particular concern. The heads of state discussed in detail the disturbing facts and trends taking place on the Belarusian-Polish borders.'
Following the call, Mr Putin convened a meeting of Russia's security council to discuss what the Kremlin called 'state border policy'.
Belta also said Belarus's foreign minister Vladimir Makei was travelling to Moscow to discuss the crisis with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
Mr Lavrov has previously thrown his weight behind Belarus on the issue, saying the EU should be paying Lukashenko to take the migrants back.
Lukashenko denies he is waging 'hybrid warfare' and has been backed by close ally Vladimir Putin (right), with the two leaders sharing a phone-call about the crisis on Tuesday
Lithuania, Latvia and Poland - the three EU countries which border Belarus - have all complained of migrants being forced to their borders in recent months, but the largest numbers have arrived at Poland's doorstep near the Kuznica crossing point (above)
Lithuania has also begun increasing its border defences in anticipation of more migrants being forced across from neighbouring BelarusUkraine doubles guards at Belarus border preventing migrant influx
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