The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) advises against all travel to the Republic of Belarus and recommends Poles remaining in Belarus to leave its territory by available commercial and private means. This is due to increased tensions and war incidents in the region, as well as repeated cases of arrests of Polish citizens.

“In the event of a drastic deterioration of the security situation, border closures or other unforeseen situations, evacuation may be significantly hampered or even impossible”, states MFA.

The recommendations followed the morning’s massive rocket attacks on cities in Ukraine. Russian missiles hit the centre of Kyiv, Zaporozhye and the cities of Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv regions, among others.

The diplomatic ministry recalled that two border crossings with Poland for passenger traffic are currently operational: Bobrowniki-Berestovitsa and Terespol-Brest. In addition, there is a border crossing point for freight traffic only: Koroszczyn (Kukuryki)-Kozlowicze.

MFA recommends persons staying in Belarus to register in the Odysseus system and keep up-to-date with the MFA’s information on the profiles of Polish missions in social media and on websites.

According to the Polish services, the threat of crime in Belarus is comparable to the situation in Poland. While assaults on drivers on the roads do not generally occur, vehicle thefts and burglaries do happen. This is particularly the case in less frequented areas. There is also petty theft in hotels.

Police patrols are very frequent, in large cities at almost every major intersection. Checks by traffic militia are common in busy areas. In Belarus, the authorities have not introduced a terrorist threat level.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński