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Old 16-07-24, 08:30   #59
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Movies Russias’ Spear-Throwing Migrants Killing Guards to Break Through EU Borders

EU Border Guard Killed by Spear-Throwing Migrants

Polish officials believe surge in arrivals through Belarus is the latest tactic in Russias’ hybrid war with the West


BBC 16 JUL 2024







Dozens of illegal migrants on the Belarusian side of the border with Poland hurled a volley of makeshift spears at Polish border guards through the five-metre-high steel fence.



Some fell short of their targets and as the security forces picked them up they saw what appeared to be a tree branch with a steel blade taped to the top. The attack came shortly before dawn.

Several were injured in the bombardment and one - Sgt Mateusz Sitek, a 21-year-old from the village of Nowy Lubiel - lost his life.

They may be incredibly crude, but the weapons show a new level of organisation and intent from the waves of migrants arriving at the gates of the EU through Belarus.

They are moving with the quiet helping hand of Russia, Polish officials believe, the latest axis in Vladimir Putin’s asymmetric hybrid war with the West.

Russia has long waged hybrid warfare on Europe’s doorstep with a combination of cyber attacks and disinformation.

It began weaponising migration three years ago, working with travel agents in the Middle East to encourage migrants to visit with the promise of a gateway to the EU.





The death of Sgt Sitek is emblematic of how things have dramatically escalated.




“He was a very, very good boy,” one person told The Telegraph at his funeral in a small church where friends, family and the Polish president gathered to pay their respects.

Amid the kind words and reflections, though, one message cut through: this was a needless death.

As well as training and controlling increasingly violent migration flows into Poland, Russia has also upped its destabilising techniques elsewhere along its border with Europe.

On the Finnish-Russian border, Russia has been handing out bicycles and foot-scooters to migrants to help them cross over.


These migrants are increasingly controlled by private Wagner-like Russian militias.




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