Lukashenka tried to arm migrants against our border guards: Latvian official

Latvian border guards have reported cases of Belarusian authorities offering firearms to illegal migrants planning to cross the Belarus-Latvia border, Guntis Pujāts, Chief of the State Border Guard, told the LETA media outlet.

Furthermore, the Belarusian regime’s services were also trying to instruct the migrants on how to tackle Latvian border guards should they attempt to prevent the migrants from crossing the border, Pujāts said.

Realizing that something is seriously amiss, however, the migrants refused to use the weapons.

There have been no incidents involving the use of firearms against Latvian border guards in recent months, although such incidents have been recorded at the end of last year.

“Of course, such incidents increase the risks, security risks, and can escalate to shootouts,” Pujāts said.

Pujāts also said that there have been reports of Belarusian servicemen being armed with weapons like machine guns and sniper rifles, which is not typical equipment of border guards.

Pujāts has previously correctly predicted a greater influx of migrants as summer approaches, and said that with the NATO summit in Vilnius a month away {July 11-12), there is a risk of even more pressure, “predominantly to Lithuania, but the pressure may increase on the region as a whole,” Pujāts warned.

“This means not only immigrants but also other types of attacks against Lithuania, such as cyber-attacks,” he said.

Latvian authorities consider attempts to traffic third-country nationals across the borders of EU member states Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland to be methods of hybrid warfare employed by the Belarusian regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka to destabilize Europe.

According to Latvia’s State Border Guard, 3,793 persons have been prevented from crossing into Latvia from Belarus in 2023 up until June 8. 187 individuals have been allowed into Latvia on humanitarian grounds. This indicates growing pressure on the Latvian border, since throughout the entirety of 2022, the border guards prevented 5,286 illegal border crossing attempts, with 217 people permitted to cross on humanitarian grounds.

Latvian municipalities of Ludza and Krāslava, as well as the city of Daugavpils, located in the southeastern part of the country near the border with Belarus, have been under a state of emergency since August 10, 2021. The state of emergency was repeatedly extended, with the most recent extension ending August 10, 2023.