Belarus: Eastern European security feared under threat – as more British troops prepare to deploy to Poland to help tackle border migrant crisis | world News

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The defense minister has warned that Eastern European security is under threat as he revealed that at least 100 additional British troops are likely to be sent to Poland to help tackle the migrant crisis at the Belarus border.

Ben Wallace said he was also “deeply concerned” about an unusual build-up of Russian forces around Ukraine, which borders Poland, and Belarus, an ally of the Kremlin.

Speaking on a trip to Poland on Thursday, he was not drawn to whether the two flashpoints were linked.

Photo: At least 100 additional British troops are likely to be sent to Poland to help tackle the migrant crisis at the Belarus border

But the senior minister said: “There is a lot of activity in this part of Europe that threatens security and I think one of our reactions is to show that solidarity, really politically and militarily.”

One way the UK has done this is by deploying a small group of royal engineers last week to the Polish border to look at how to help reinforce the fence that prevents migrants – who are brought to the border by the Belarusian system – from crossing.

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2:24 Inside a migrant camp in Belarus

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0:39 Migrants use soccer in Belarus

Wallace said he would read an assessment from the reconnaissance flight, but seemed ready to send a larger team to help the Polish army.

“It’s probably a swarm of [Royal] The engineers will be sent here to support them to make sure the borders are properly secure and to show them that this kind of Belarusian hybrid activity will not be tolerated and will not work.”

The defense minister also announced that he had reached an agreement with his Polish counterpart to work together on building a £3 billion missile defense shield for Poland.

The development of a ground-based air defense system can be seen as a provocation by Russia.

PHOTO: Defense Secretary Ben Wallace speaks at a military base in Pymwowski, Poland

Wallace denied that this was the case.

“Britain and Poland have had a long and deep relationship for 200 years,” he said.

“We are natural and strong partners, working together.”

Echoing a statement issued by the Group of Seven rich democracies, the defense minister accused Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko of exploiting people’s desperation to escape from war-torn countries like Iraq to attack the European Union in a form of hybrid warfare, under the threshold of conventional war.

He said the system was transporting migrants to Belarus and then buses them to its borders with the European Union – Poland, Lithuania and Latvia – to create friction within the European Union, where migration is a very sensitive issue.

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0:22 Aerial images show the extent of the border crisis between Poland and Belarus

“This is a horrific activity on the backs of some of the most vulnerable people, young women and children, being forced almost beyond these limits and this again increases the destabilizing and growing anxiety in the West, something that always leads to insecurity,” Mr. Wallace told Sky News.

He was speaking while visiting some 150 British soldiers already stationed in Poland as part of a 1,000-strong battle group led by the United States.

Photo: Troops deployed to help the Polish army

The so-called Enhanced Forward Presence (EFP) is one of four such battle groups, including in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, that NATO created to deter Russian aggression following its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Wallace watched British soldiers engage in a live-fire maneuver with their Polish, American and Romanian allies, driving around a large field in armored vehicles firing at an imaginary enemy.

Photo: A small group of royal engineers have been sent to the Polish border to look at how to help reinforce a wall that prevents immigrants

The four combat groups are intended to deter Russia from attacking a NATO country.

But concern is growing that President Vladimir Putin may be planning a new attack on Ukraine, which is not part of the alliance.

Asked if Russia was about to invade Ukraine, Wallace said: “What we’re seeing is a worrying build-up of forces in the region.

“I really think the message from Europe, the message from the G-7, the message from the UK is that all countries that are engaged in such destabilizing activity have to stop, and that’s not the way forward.”

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