Belarusians using 'Soviet-style' approach in border crisis - dep FM

A Polish deputy foreign minister has accused Belarus of behaving like the old Soviet Union over Polish claims that an armed unit entered Poland from Belarus in early October.

The accusations of Piotr Wawrzyk were in response to the Belarusian foreign ministry summoning on Thursday the Polish charge d'affaires to Minsk in order to lodge a formal protest against Poland's allegations of an incursion, which Belarus says are unfounded.

Belarus's claims of innocence, however, have been rejected by Warsaw.

Wawrzyk told PAP on Thursday that the Belarusian side was "denying obvious facts."

"One can say that these standards are somewhat Soviet-style, where you deny the obvious and try to shift the blame to the other side," he said, adding that he feared that the conduct of Belarus in the matter would further escalate the border crisis.

"But they won't be able to deny this, especially as we have a very clear statement from Nato, which confirms our version of events, and expresses clear support for us in this issue," Wawrzyk said.

According to minister, the next move in the matter belonged to Belarus, although he added that he was "pessimistic."

Poland has accused Belarus of deliberately pushing the migrants across their borders in a move to destabilise the EU.