Aleksandr Lukashenko

The arrival of the heaviest military equipment in the West will herald the Polish government's pledge from July 2021 to "radically increase" the country's defence capabilities and to expand the Polish Armed Forces to a staggering 300,000 personnel - a combination of the regular professional army and part-time volunteer Territorial Defence Force, which was created in 2017.

The family are lucky this time - the approaching footsteps are those of volunteer doctors who are helping the migrants stuck in the border area. They give medicines to the mother and walk off.

In an escalation of the migrant crisis being fomented by Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko, with the alleged help of his political ally Russian President Vladimir Putin, designed to destabilise EU countries and test their military capabilities, tensions began growing when a large group of migrants on Monday attempted to cross into Poland at an official border-crossing point.

A view of an information board regarding the state of emergency near the border with Belarus in Zubrzyca Wielka, northeastern Poland, 03 September 2021. EPA-EFE/Artur Reszko

One of them was an Iraqi man, found on Sunday by Polish border guards near the village of Dworczysko, together with two others, all suffering from hypothermia. The two still alive are recovering in hospital.

However, it comes in the context of an already tense situation on Belarus' borders with Poland and the Baltics, after weeks during which Aleksandr Lukashenko's regime has been pushing migrants, primarily from the Middle East and Afghanistan, into the EU, partly in retaliation for sanctions Brussels imposed on it for a rigged presidential election in 2020 and a subsequent violent crackdown on de

At the request of the government, Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday declared a state of emergency on the Belarus border for 30 days which limits the access of unauthorised people to a three-kilometre-wide stretch of land along the border in two eastern counties.

A member of the Polish Border Guard is seen exiting his vehicle near the border with Belarus on 14 August, 2021 in Zubrzyca Wielka, Poland. Photo: Jaap Arriens

According to the statement dated August 18, the Interior Ministry said 2,100 people had "attempted to illegally enter Poland" via the border with Belarus so far this month.

Now, here on the Polish side of the border, they had no water and their phones had been broken - by the Belarusians, they claimed. And they were adamant that they do not want to go back to Belarus: all three had fresh bandages and Mohammed's head was bleeding.

The parents of Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich and his fellow NEXTA founder Stsiapan Putsila appealed to Western governments at a press conference organised at the Belarusian House in Warsaw to step up efforts to save the life of the imprisoned 26-year-old.

Serbia will buy four S-300 air defense missile systems and six MiG-29 warplanes from Belarus, the Belgrade-based tabloid Alo has reported.

Tanjug cited the report on Sunday to say that the contract will be signed by presidents of Serbia and Belarus Aleksandar Vucic and Aleksandr Lukashenko.