Poland denies it violated Belarus' airspace

2023-09-01 22:53:55, Kosova & Bota CNA

Poland denies it violated Belarus' airspace

A Mi-24 helicopter

Poland denied that one of its military helicopters had violated Belarus' airspace, calling Minsk's claims "lies and provocations" at a time when tensions between the neighboring states have escalated.

Relations between Minsk and Warsaw, frozen for years, are at a low point since Belarusian authoritarian leader Aylasandr Lukashenka allowed Moscow to use his country's territory to launch an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February last year. .

Belarus claimed that the incident happened in the Grodno region, which is located on the border between the two countries, which is almost 400 kilometers long.

"There are lies and provocations on the part of Belarus," said Jacek Goryszewski, spokesman for the operations command of Poland's armed forces.

"There was definitely no such violation. This is also based on the messages sent by the pilot and the data of the radar system," he told AFP.

The border service of Belarus published the claims on its Telegram channel, attaching a video that allegedly shows the helicopter flying over Belarusian territory.

"A military helicopter of the Mi-24 type of Poland crossed the state border at an extremely low altitude, flew up to 1,200 meters inside the territory of Belarus and then turned back," the border service said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus called the chargé d'affaires of Poland to the conversation and said that "the Polish side has been asked to explain the incident and to carry out a detailed investigation".

The Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland, Pawel Jablonski, said that "it is possible that this is a Belarusian provocation".

"We will analyze the situation. However, statements from the Belarusian side should be taken with great caution," he told Polsat News television.

There have been renewed tensions between the two countries, especially since fighters from the Russian mercenary group, Wagner, moved into Belarus after a brief rebellion against the Russian military in June.

Last week, Poland and the Baltic states demanded that Belarus expel Wagner's fighters.

Lukashenka has said that such a request is "stupid" and has accused these states of "spreading hysteria about the presence of employees of Wagner's private army in our territory"./ REL