Ukraine on Friday warned migrants who would attempt to cross its border from Belarus and then join the EU, threatening to push them back by any means possible, even guns. "
If the life and health of border guards are threatened, we will use all means of protection available to us by law, including firearms,
" said Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky, speaking to Parliament. Thousands of migrants have been trying for months to reach the European Union from Belarus. The situation has escalated in recent weeks, a crowd of several thousand people having formed on the Polish-Belarusian border, causing significant tensions between Minsk,supported by Moscow, and Brussels.
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The Ukrainian authorities, a country bordering Belarus and several countries of the European Union, fear that migrants stranded at the Polish and Baltic borders will try to reach the EU through Ukraine.
The Europeans accuse the regime of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of having orchestrated this influx of migrants - mostly from the Middle East - by issuing visas in revenge for Western sanctions.
Some countries, including Poland and Ukraine, have accused Moscow - Minsk's main ally - of having also pulled the strings of this crisis.
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"
We do not exclude the possibility that Russia decides to intentionally send a large number of illegal migrants to our territory through Belarus
", judged the Ukrainian Minister of the Interior, in the same speech, broadcast on television .
"
We are preparing for this situation,
" he said, adding, however, that the current situation on the border between Ukraine and Belarus was "
under control and stable
".
Kiev last week declared its intention to deploy thousands of border guards and police to its border with Belarus.