Alexander Lukashenko

"I drafted the Constitution. Lawyers put it down in writing, and I dictated it, because I saw, as a president, what powers I need to maintain the country. Now we will publish it, in about a month."
A referendum on a new constitution could be held around February 20, 2022, "unless war breaks out," the Belarusian leader added.

Poland said on Nov. 20 that Belarus has changed tactics in their border crisis by directing smaller groups of migrants to several points along the European Union's eastern frontier.

Though there have been signs of the crisis easing, Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said he expected the border showdown to be long drawn out while Belarus said the situation remained "tense".

Thousands of migrants, mostly from the Middle East, have flocked to Europe after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced in May that he was easing measures against those wishing to emigrate to the West.

Hope for de-escalating the crisis, which has seen thousands camping in desperate conditions on the border for weeks, had been mounting in recent days, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko twice by phone.

The European Union must seal its external borders to deter migrants who are no longer welcome in the affluent 27-nation bloc, Slovenian Interior Minister Ales Hoys, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said today, Reuters reported.

Hundreds of migrants who were camped in the cold on the Poland-Belarus border have been moved to a nearby warehouse in Belarusian territory, reports said on Nov. 17, with some still harboring hopes of entering the European Union.

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.

The European Union and the United States vowed on Nov. 15 to press ahead with fresh sanctions against the regime of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, as migrants massed at the Polish border despite Minsk claiming it was trying to repatriate them.

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.

Migrants approaching a fence at the Belarus-Polish border in the Grodno region of Belarus, November 10, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/LEONID SCHEGLOV/BELTA

Turkey's Anadolu Agency reported that Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau on Wednesday that Turkey was being made part of a problem despite not being party to it.