Lukashenko's trap": Belarus created a false border with Latvia.
The authorities in Belarus created another fence a few hundred meters away from the real border with Latvia. According to the head of the Crisis Management Center in Latvia, Colonel Ervis Zill, the migrants were told that the EU starts behind this fence. However, having overcome this, people fall into a trap: there is a real limit to the face, and they are not allowed to return.
As Arwis Zill said in an interview with the Polish newspaper Republika. Additional fencing can be seen on Google Maps satellite images. Latvian services received information about how migrants enter the buffer zone from people who were arrested after crossing the border illegally. According to the colonel, this plan allows the Belarusian authorities to hide their participation in organizing immigration pressure. He noted that right next to the border fence, the Belarusian border guards are almost invisible.
According to Blast, since the beginning of 2026 the Latvian border guard has prevented about 12 thousand attempts to cross the border with Belarus illegally. Zill called what is happening a hybrid threat directed against Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. In the interview he also said that the authorities in Latvia have identified 48 main risks to the country's security. The most serious threats are considered to be hybrid threats, armed invasion, cyber attacks and extreme weather events.
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