Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki spoke with his Lithuanian and Latvian counterparts over the weekend, saying afterward that the three countries were together protecting the frontier of the European Union against a hybrid attack from Belarus.
Morawiecki took to Twitter yesterday to announce talks over the ongoing migrant crisis with Lithuania’s head of government Ingrida Simonyte and Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins. According to Morawiecki, the three countries are working together „to safeguard the EU borders and call for joint actions to stop Lukashenko’s aggression, media manipulation, and fake news.”
In an interview with the Polish Press Agency (PAP) on Sunday, Morawiecki announced that Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia might ask for consultations under Article 4 of the NATO Charter, which suggests the three countries believe their territorial integrity, political independence, or security is threatened.
Last week, NATO officially condemned „the use of migrants by the Lukashenko regime as a hybrid tactic,” and Morawiecki has since urged NATO to take „concrete steps” to solve the migrant crisis.
On Saturday, Poland’s Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau discussed the situation on the Belarus frontier with several top diplomats, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, France’s top diplomat, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.
Source: Radio Gdańsk, Radio Poland
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk on Saturday said that new sanctions would be imposed on Belarus in a matter of days as the migrant crisis continued.
Wawrzyk’s remarks come after US President Joe Biden on Friday said that the situation on the border between Poland and Belarus was „of great concern.” Earlier in the week, Biden discussed the situation with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who then announced plans for the EU to discuss new sanctions against Belarus.
EU foreign ministers are due to meet today to discuss potential measures against Minsk, with proposed sanctions targeting regime officials as well as companies.
The situation on the border remains tense, with thousands of migrants trapped between Polish and Belarusian forces in increasingly cold, wet weather. On Friday, Polish police announced that the body of a young Syrian man had been found in a wooded area near the border with Belarus, outside the village of Wolka Terechowska. The cause of the man’s death has yet to be determined.
The Polish Border Guard later reported via Twitter that Belarusian soldiers had attempted to tear apart sections of the temporary border fence Saturday night, as a group of some hundred migrants attempted to cross the frontier illegally.
Source: Radio Poland
The world’s largest aircraft, the Antonov An-225 Mriya, visited Poland over the weekend to deliver some 150 tonnes of aluminum for processing.
The plane landed at the Jasionka airport in Rzeszów Saturday evening, carrying aluminum coils for CanPack, a metal-packaging maker headquartered in Kraków.
Built in Soviet-era Kyiv, the one-of-a-kind, 84-meter-long, six-engine transport plane is currently the largest and heaviest aircraft in the world. Saturday marked its fourth trip to Poland and the first since 2020 when it brought medical materials from China to Warsaw’s Chopin airport.
According to the Jasionka officials, the Mriya will be revisiting Poland before the end of the month.
Source: Radio Poland
Poland is renovating its research station off the coast of Antarctica as it seeks to continue scientific investigations on Earth’s only uninhabited continent.
Established in 1977, the Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station (PAN) has been dubbed Poland’s “informal embassy” in Antarctica. Over the years, sea waters have encroached to within a meter of its main building, and in 2018 Poland’s Ministry of Science allocated PLN 88 million (EUR 19 million) to modernize the station and build a new headquarters.
Some 20 staff from private firms and PAN’s Institute of Biophysics and Biochemistry are currently engaged in the modernization project, while scientists continue their research in the old building.
Despite delays brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundations will be installed this year, and construction on the station’s new headquarters is set to be completed in 2024.
Source: Radio Poland
Weather
Today will be mostly cloudy and cold, with very little chance of rain a light breeze coming in from the southeast. Temperatures will peak around a high of 6°C, or 43°F, dropping to a chilly overnight low of 4°C or 39°F. Similar cool, cloudy weather is expected tomorrow morning, with a chance for some sun in the afternoon.
Elizabeth Peck/am
