European foreign ministers met in Brussels on Monday to discuss possible sanctions against Belarus as the humanitarian crisis at its border deepens.
Thousands of migrants, many from Syria, Yemen and Iraq, have been gathered at the border with EU member Poland in freezing temperatures for several weeks. Belarus has been accused of allowing the crisis to escalate in a bid to underminesecurity and in retaliation to the bloc's backing of the country's opposition, an allegation Minsk strenuously denies.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Sunday called on NATO to take "concrete steps" to mitigate the crisis, after dozens of migrants broke through border defenses to enter Poland over the weekend. Meanwhile, Lukashenko was quoted in a state media report Monday as saying that Belarus was trying and failing to convince migrants to go home.Anna Rosenberg, head of Europe and U.K. at advisory firm Signum Global, told CNBC Monday that existing EU sanctions on Minsk were partially successful.
"If you look at Lukashenko's actions right now, they are a cry for help, if you will. He is trying to get the EU to stop imposing sanctions — he is really blackmailing them — including the recent threat to cut off gas," Rosenberg said.
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