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Minsk summons Polish diplomat over airspace violation  

04.11.2023 11:00
Belarusian authorities said on Friday that they summoned a Polish charge d'affaires over what they called an aerial violation of their state border, the Polish Radio news agency IAR reported on Friday.
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko
Belarusian president Alexander LukashenkoPAP/Abaca/Sefa Karacan

"The temporary charge d'affaires of the Republic of Poland  in the Republic of Belarus Marcin Wojciechowski was summoned to the foreign ministry," the Belarusian foreign ministry said in a statement on social media platform X, without providing further details.

"The Polish side was asked to thoroughly investigate the incident and take effective actions to prevent similar incidents in the future," it said.

The statement also read that the Polish diplomat was given a "strong protest linked to another violation on November 2 of the state border", according to IAR.

A spokesperson for the Polish army's operational command said the information provided by Belarus was being subjected to "detailed analysis," the Reuters news agency reported.

"We are checking records from our radar systems and aircraft systems to see if any such violation had occurred,” the spokesperson said.

In late September Belarus also summoned Wojciechowski after saying a Polish helicopter had violated its airspace but Warsaw said none of its aircraft had crossed the border between the two countries, according to Reuters.

Russian-allied Belarus and EU member Poland, whose relations have been frozen for years, have regularly accused each other of aerial violations of each other's borders in recent months.

Relations between Warsaw and Minsk have reached new lows since Belarus allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to attack Ukraine.

Poland has reinforced its eastern border, sending additional troops after Russia's Wagner mercenaries moved there earlier this year.


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Source: IAR, Reuters