Belarus accuses Ukraine of exaggerating migrant crisis to get money from West

The top Belarusian official said Ukraine is fabricating the issue of migration in order to get money from "western curators", ANI reported citing news agency Sputnik on Monday. Quoting Belarusian Security Council Secretary Aleksandr Volfovich, the news agency said that the issue could not be explained by common sense. According to him, the Ukrainian leadership exaggerated the issue in the hope to snatch money from their western curators, like Poles or Lithuanians. "If what is going on in Poland and Lithuania can be somehow justified, these are NATO countries, then what is going on in our southern neighbour [Ukraine]... cannot be explained by common sense. It is already hysteria," Volfovthe ich told the Belarusian broadcaster STV.

"Maybe, the hysteria of the Kyiv leadership in hopes to get some money from their western curators, like Poles or Lithuanians, to snatch something", added Volfovich.

West attack Belarus for enticing thousands of migrants

However, in response, the West has attacked Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for enticing thousands of migrants to Belarus by air transport with the promise of help to get to Western Europe. The West alleged Belarus want to use migrants as tools to destabilize the European Union in retaliation for its sanctions on his authoritarian government. According to the European Union’s border and coast guard, the number of people trying to enter Europe without permission has risen significantly since the beginning of this year. It said that the rise in migration increased came after the country imposed travel restrictions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Minsk claims of providing citizenship to 192 Ukrainians

"Nearly 160,000 illegal border crossings were recorded in the first 10 months of this year, up 70% compared to the same period in 2020 and 45% more than in 2019," news agency AP quoted the data of Frontex released early in November. Meanwhile, Volfovich noted that Ukraine had trained its defence forces to stop illegal migration during the military drills, despite this, they were not countering the migrants while crossing illegally to other nations. "Well, who will go to Ukraine? The other way around, only from Ukraine: 192 Ukrainians, if I am not mistaken, have applied for Belarusian citizenship this year and stayed in our country", Sputnik quoted Volfovich as saying.

(With inputs from ANI)

Image: AP