WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish soldier who was stabbed last month at the eastern border with Belarus has died, Poland's military said Thursday. It said earlier the soldier was stabbed in the chest by a migrant who reached through the bars of the border barrier.
The soldier was hospitalized in serious condition in the town of Hajnowka. On Thursday he was taken to a military hospital in Warsaw but died there in the afternoon, the military said.
“A young soldier, Mateusz, gave his life in the defense of Poland's border," Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on social platform X.
“The motherland and his compatriots will never forget about this sacrifice. I extend words of deepest sympathy to his family,” Tusk wrote.
The situation at the European Union’s eastern border is increasingly tense under pressure from thousands of people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa trying to force their way through metal barrier that Poland put up in 2022 to seal the frontier. Latest figures from the Polish Border Guard say there have been some 17,000 attempts at illegally crossing the border this year.
Poland and the EU say many of the migrants are organized and aided by Russia and its ally Belarus to destabilize Europe. Their pressure intensified this spring, ahead of key elections to the European Parliament. In-person voting began on Thursday, in the Netherlands, with the other 26 EU member states due to go to the polls by June 9.
The border is patrolled by about 6,000 Polish army troops, some 2,200 border guards and a few hundred police. Recently, some other officers also required hospital treatment for knife and other wounds inflicted from behind the barrier.
Earlier Thursday, government officials demanded explanations after it emerged that three soldiers were handcuffed and detained by Polish military police in March for having fired warning shots when faced with an advancing group of migrants on the border with Belarus.
The soldiers had allegedly fired warning shots first into the air and then into the ground as they tried to stop an advancing migrant group on Polish territory. No one was injured. Polish media report growing discontent among the military over the way their colleagues were treated.
Government officials say the detention was an excessive measure given the circumstances.
“This is a shocking case, considering the fact that our soldiers were recently repeatedly attacked by aggressors from the Belarus side,” said President Andrzej Duda, who is the supreme commander of Poland's armed forces.
Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said the military police overreacted and demanded clarification from them and from the prosecutors who are investigating. One of the soldiers detained has been cleared of the allegations.
“The soldiers at the border are carrying out a mission for the Polish state," Kosiniak-Kamysz told a news conference Thursday.
“We are always on the side of the soldiers ... of those who carry out their tasks at the border,” he said, adding that soldiers, in charge of protecting the border since 2022, have used weapons in emergency situations some 700 times.
Monika Scislowska, The Associated Press
