Russiahas adopted a new angle in itshybrid waron the West by sendingmigrants through underground tunnelsfrom the Russian puppet state ofBelarusinto Europe, Polish officials have revealed. Poland - which has seen tens of thousands of migrants sent across its eastern frontier by Minsk - has also suggested that Belarus has resorted toMiddle Easternspecialists with "a high level of expertise" in a bid to create more inventive methods of sneaking migrants across the border.
“Officers of the Podlaskie Border Guard Unit have uncovered a total of four tunnels under the border with Belarus, all in 2025,” Lt Col Katarzyna Zdanowicz, from the Polish border force, toldThe Telegraph. While not confirmed, experts have suggested Kurdish fighters,Islamic Stateand Iranian-backed proxies are involved in the escalation. One of the largest tunnels was discovered near the village of Narewka in eastern Poland, near the Belarusian border, in mid-December and was used by some 180 migrants - mainly fromAfghanistanand Pakistan.
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According toPoland, the tunnel was five feet (1.5m) with the entrance hidden in a Belarusian forest. The tunnel ran for around 164 feet (50m) on the Belarusian side of the border and for 33 feet (10m) on the Polish side. Video footage from inside the tunnel showed a narrow crawl space supported by concrete struts. The majority of the migrants were arrested after emerging from the tunnel in Poland.
Military experts say the only Middle Eastern groups known to be capable of such tunnels areHamasin theGaza Strip,Hezbollahin Lebanon, certain factions in Kurdistan and possibly the Islamic State. According to Dr Lynette Nusbacher, an American military historian and strategist, it was "plausible" that Iranian-backed groups like Hezbollah might be to blame.
“We also have ample evidence of Hamas doing the same thing in Gaza," she said.
The Kremlin has been using migration as another instrument of war as a means of destabilising its enemies in the West. A report by the Henry Jackson Society late last year revealed clear evidence thatRussiahas been deliberately engineering migration surges to pressureNATOstates and compensate for its battlefield losses inUkraine.
Belarus, led by dictatorAlexander Lukashenkofor over 30 years, serves as a major logistics hub and staging ground for Russian forces. In 2021, Belarus relaxed its entry rules for the Middle East and Africa, directing them towards its borders with Poland and other NATO states. If these starving and desperate migrants were rejected, Russia would then be able to attack NATO for being intolerant of migrants. If they were accepted, they predicted an increase in social tensions within NATO nations.
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Source: Daily Express :: World Feed
