A Polish soldier from the 1st Warsaw Armored Brigade was stabbed with a makeshift spear by migrants attempting to breach the border barrier early on Tuesday, according to officials.
"It was recommended to us that we should quickly restore the 200-metre buffer zone in this area where possible," Tusk said during a visit to the border on Wednesday morning.
"We are ready to make such a decision at the beginning of next week," he told a news conference in the eastern village of Dubicze Cerkiewne.
Polish prosecutors have classified Tuesday's incident as attempted murder, state news agency PAP reported.
Migrants also hurled stones and other dangerous objects at Polish law enforcement officers during the attack, according to Poland's Border Guard agency.
Rising challenges at the border
The attack occurred amid increasing migration pressures and aggression in the area, Deputy Interior Minister Czesław Mroczek told Polish Radio on Tuesday morning.
He highlighted the rising challenges at the border, exacerbated by organized large-scale attempts to cross, supported by Belarusian forces.
Mroczek accused Belarus of not only turning a blind eye but actively facilitating the movement of migrants to the Polish border as a form of hybrid warfare aimed at destabilizing the region.
Andrzej Jóźwiak, a spokesman for the Border Guard, told reporters on Tuesday that Belarusian forces were assisting people in their illegal border crossings.
"We clearly see that Belarusian forces are helping foreigners during attempts to cross the border, and these migrants are equipped with tools to help them breach the border," he said.
Thousands of attempts to cross into Poland
According to the Border Guard, more than 13,000 people have attempted to illegally cross into Poland from Belarus this year, with a sharp increase in recent days.
Observers attribute this to Russia increasing pressure on European Union countries ahead of the upcoming EU elections, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
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Source: PAP, polskieradio24.pl
