Poland has increased security along its border with Belarus and accused Minsk of trying to engineer a major confrontation as hundreds of migrants and refugees appeared to be making a bid to enter the country from its neighbour.

Warsaw said it had deployed additional soldiers, border guards and police in response to the situation along its eastern border, while video clips shared on social media purportedly showed people walking towards the frontier and some trying to breach a barbed-wire border fence using spades and other items.

There was no way to independently verify what was happening, as journalists have limited ability to operate in Belarus, while a state of emergency in Poland is keeping reporters, human rights workers and others out of the area.

However, the developments appeared to signal an escalation of a crisis that has been rumbling for months.

The European Union has accused Minsk of encouraging migrants from the Middle East and Africa to cross into the bloc via member states Poland, Lithuania and Latvia from Belarus as a form of hybrid warfare in revenge for Western sanctions on longtime President Alexander Lukashenko’s government.

Lukashenko, who launched a crackdown on dissent in Belarus after winning a sixth term in a disputed presidential election held in August last year, has repeatedly denied those accusations.

Warsaw warns of ‘mass crossing’

Poland said it had withstood the first attempts on Monday by those gathered along its border to force their way across the frontier.

A video distributed by Polish authorities showed one man cutting part of a barbed-wire fence, another attacking the fence with a spade, while a Polish soldier sprayed an unidentified substance from a can.

In an earlier video, shared by the Belarusian blogging service NEXTA, people carrying rucksacks and wearing winter clothing were seen walking on the side of a highway. Other videos showed large groups sitting by the road and being escorted by armed men dressed in khaki.

“Belarus wants to cause a major incident, preferably with shots fired and casualties. According to media reports, they are preparing a major provocation near Kuznica Bialostocka … there will be an attempt at a mass border crossing,” Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk told Polish public radio, citing a village close to the frontier.

The Belarusian state border committee confirmed on Monday that many migrants and refugees were moving towards the Polish border. It also said Warsaw, which has stationed more than 12,000 troops in the region, was taking an “inhumane attitude”.

Lithuania, meanwhile, said it was moving additional troops to its border with Belarus to prepare for a possible surge in attempted crossings from the latter, while Latvia described the situation as “alarming”.

EU says Lukashenko using ‘people as pawns’

The EU said it hoped that Poland would accept help from Frontex, the bloc’s border agency, to manage the unfolding situation, a step Poland’s governing nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party has so far refused.

In Brussels, European Commission spokesman Adalbert Jahnz called Monday’s developments “a continuation of the desperate attempt by the Lukashenko regime to use people as pawns to destabilise the European Union and of course, the values that we stand for”.

Al Jazeera reporter Dominic Kane said the developments at the Polish-Belarus border were of significance for the EU on two fronts.

“It represents the two border issues with which the EU has to wrestle – the first one, its inner borders within member states, and the second one its outer borders, between member states and non-EU countries,” Kane said.

“The EU wants to keep its borders within its member states wide open, but some of its borders, particularly with Belarus, very much more firmly under control,” he added.

Russia backs Minsk

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, meanwhile, urged a strong response from the EU and United Nations.

“Belarus’ regime escalates the border crisis – migrants are pushed to EU border by armed men,” she tweeted. “The migrant smuggling, violence & ill-treatment must stop.”

The EU, the United States and United Kingdom all imposed sanctions on Belarus after Lukashenko unleashed a violent crackdown on mass protests following last year’s presidential vote. All of Belarus’s top opposition leaders are now either in prison or have fled the country.

But the 67-year-old, who has accused Western governments of having instigated the protests against him in the hope of fomenting a revolution, has so far withstood the penalties with the backing of ally and creditor Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday defended Minsk’s handling of the border crisis, saying Belarus was taking all necessary measures to act legally.

But human rights groups have criticised both Poland and Belarus for their treatment of migrants and refugees, who face freezing weather conditions and a lack of food and medical attention.

Warsaw has said at least seven people have died in the region since August, when the border crisis erupted. There have also been reports of more deaths on the Belarusian side of the frontier.

TodayNG