Polen stänger gränspassage mot Belarus på obestämd tid

Andrzej Poczobut (Belarusian: Андрэй (Анджэй) Пачобут Andrej (Andžej) Pačobut, born 16 April 1973 in Vyalikaya Byerastavitsa) is a Belarusian and Polish journalist and activist of the Polish minority in Belarus. He lives in Hrodna, Belarus. A correspondent for the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Poczobut has been arrested more than a dozen times by the government of Belarus. In 2011, he was sentenced to a fine and fifteen days in prison for "participation in the unsanctioned protest rally" following the 2010 presidential election. In 2011 and 2012, he was arrested and detained for allegedly libeling President Alexander Lukashenko in his reports. The charges against Poczobut received international condemnation, with groups including the European Parliament, Reporters Without Borders, and Amnesty International issuing statements in his support. He has been arrested again in 2021 and remains in prison as of 2022. He has been described as a political prisoner.

The Republic of Poland and the Republic of Belarus established diplomatic relations on 2 March 1992. Poland was one of the first countries to recognise Belarusian independence. Both countries share a border and have shared histories, for they have been part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and later, the Russian Empire. They joined the United Nations together in October 1945 as original members. The two countries are currently engaged in a border crisis. Cultural relations between the two are quite friendly but diplomatic relations between the two countries are currently very strained. Poland is a member of NATO and the European Union, and has an anti-Russian stance, whereas Belarus has long been firmly pro-Russia, and as such, the separate paths by default impair the positive bilateral relationship (see Russia–European Union relations). In August 2011, the arrest of Ales Bialiatski using information from Poland led to a harsh war of words between the two countries. However, in February 2017 some tensions arose between Belarus and Russia over border controls, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko expressed indignation at Russia's behaviour. Relations between the two countries have since significantly deteriorated. In the lead-up to and during the 2020 Belarusian presidential election, a number of anti-government protests took place across the country. Belarusian authorities employed various methods of violent political crackdown, consisting of various humans rights violations; Poland strongly condemned the measures. Following Lukashenko's alleged victory for a sixth term, the European Council on 19 August decided that the elections were neither free nor fair, therefore do not recognize the results. Poland and Lithuania became two of the first countries to officially back the Belarusian opposition. Angered by this posturing, Lukashenko claimed that Belarus had closed its EU borders and had deployed additional guards and troops. In August 2021, following a sudden influx of refugees coming from Belarus, Poland deployed 15,000 troops to guard the eastern frontier with Belarus. A standoff ensued between both armies, border guards and refugees caught in between. Poland had accused Belarus of engaging in hybrid warfare, to which Poland was accused of pushing back migrants by force. By 2022, Poland had finalized the construction of a state border barrier between the two countries. In the same year, a number of Home Army monuments in Belarus were purposely destroyed. [citation needed]