Speaking at a press conference in Warsaw on Monday, Poland's top diplomat criticized Belarus for "its lack of cooperation" following the fatal stabbing of the soldier on May 28 near the Polish-Belarusian border.
The 21-year-old soldier, who was posthumously promoted to sergeant and awarded the Gold Medal of Merit to National Defense, was killed while attempting to prevent illegal border crossing.
Sikorski confirmed that a protest note had been delivered to the Belarusian chargé d'affaires, demanding the identification and extradition of the murderer to Poland. Instead of cooperating, Belarus responded by accusing Poland of breaching border cooperation agreements.
"This is another lie by Belarus about the state of our relations," Sikorski said.
He refuted Belarusian claims that Poland had broken the readmission agreement, saying that it was Belarus that halted the agreement following EU sanctions imposed after the 2021 incident where Belarus forced a Ryanair flight to land in Minsk to detain dissident Raman Protasevich.
"We do not expect good cooperation from the Belarusian side," Sikorski told reporters.
(jh/gs)
Source: PAP