Armed escorts from Belarus try to push migrants into Latvia

At least 20 migrants tried to cross from Belarus into Latvia this week under the direction of masked escorts, who were armed and threatened Latvian soldiers, LSM reports, citing the National Armed Forces.

Soldiers stopped the attempted crossing. The escorts also urged and drove the group towards Latvia, the armed forces said.

Several hours later, masked people entered Latvian territory, damaged an electrical distribution cabinet and stole two border surveillance cameras, Interior Minister Jānis Dombrava said. They returned to Belarus before a border guard unit arrived.

State Border Guard chief Guntis Pujāts told news agency LETA that work was under way to repair the damaged infrastructure. He said the masked individuals might not be representatives of Belarusian state services, but members of organised crime groups taking advantage of the services’ goodwill to move migrants illegally.

Pujāts said sabotage incidents targeting information technology infrastructure were more numerous than before, while damage to the border fence was about half as frequent as a year earlier. He agreed with the National Armed Forces that tensions remained high and sabotage continued.

The armed forces said the incident showed that deliberate provocations and hybrid threats at the Latvia-Belarus border would continue, with irregular migration used to pressure Latvia and the European Union and NATO’s external border. The military will continue to support the State Border Guard on the Latvia-Belarus and Latvia-Russia borders.

The State Border Guard also prevented 59 people from attempting to cross illegally on Monday.