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That is half two of a sequence inspecting the challenges confronting the NATO alliance.
POLAND-BELARUS BORDER — Using in a army convoy escorted by armored autos from Poland’s 18th “Iron Division” alongside the nation’s 521-kilometer border with Belarus, troopers pointed towards dense forests the place they are saying Europe’s latest type of warfare is unfolding.
Polish officers warn unlawful migrants weaponized by Russia and Belarus to destabilize NATO’s eastern flank are additionally making their approach to the US — a part of what Warsaw calls an ongoing conflict in opposition to the Western alliance that has direct implications for American safety.
The border was as soon as guarded primarily by Poland’s Border Guard and police. However after years of mounting stress from unlawful crossings, Polish officers say the military was deployed as a result of the state of affairs grew to become too massive and too harmful to deal with as a standard immigration problem.
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Troopers from Poland’s 18th “Iron Division” participate in a army train on the Poland-Belarus border amid what Polish officers describe as a Russian and Belarusian marketing campaign to weaponize unlawful migration in opposition to NATO international locations. (Efrat Lachter/Fox Information Digital.)
Now, the frontier is guarded in layers: troopers, border guards and rapid-response forces. A brief barrier in-built 2021 has develop into an digital fence backed by surveillance methods and army patrols. Polish officers say migrants attempting to cross have come from international locations together with Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan and India.
They describe the disaster as “synthetic migration,” saying the illegals are flown into Belarus from the Center East, Africa and Asia after which transported towards the Polish border by Belarusian authorities in an effort to stress and destabilize NATO international locations.
Army officers on the border mentioned the height was in 2021, when there have been 39,697 unlawful crossing makes an attempt. By 2025, it was 29,869, barely fewer than in 2024. To this point in 2026, they’ve seen a serious drop, they are saying.
For Warsaw, the numbers inform solely a part of the story.
Polish officers say the border stress will not be spontaneous unlawful migration, however a Russian-backed Belarusian operation designed to destabilize NATO from inside.
“We’re at conflict,” Ambassador Krzysztof Olendzki of Poland’s International Ministry informed Fox Information Digital after the border go to.
“Not solely Poland, but additionally all of the international locations of the jap flank of NATO, we’re in conflict,” Olendzki mentioned. “We can’t see it as a classical conflict with troopers, with tanks and so forth, however the conflict is exercised by our adversaries, by Belarus and Russia, who’re utilizing virtually migrants as an uneven weapon in opposition to NATO international locations.”
File photograph reveals largely male unlawful migrants ready on the closed space ready by the Belarusian authorities throughout the border area after they cleared camps on the Poland-Belarus border, on Nov. 18, 2021, in Grodno area, Belarus. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Company through Getty Photos)
The disaster dates again to 2021, when Poland, Lithuania and Latvia accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime of encouraging migrants from the Center East, Africa and elsewhere to journey to Belarus and cross illegally into the European Union. Belarus has denied orchestrating the flows, however Poland and the EU have described the marketing campaign as hybrid warfare.
Olendzki mentioned the aim will not be solely to push individuals throughout the border, however to create chaos inside Western societies.
The border go to underscored how far Poland has gone to harden what it views as one in every of NATO’s most weak frontiers.
Capt. Angelika Korkosz of Poland’s 18th Division described the day-to-day pressure on troopers stationed there.
“Many instances troopers have been confronted with aggression from unlawful teams of immigrants, they usually must act appropriately and calmly in accordance with the law and procedures whereas defending themselves,” Korkosz informed Fox Information Digital.
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A Polish soldier stands watch close to the Belarus border, the place officers say migration stress has advanced right into a type of hybrid warfare concentrating on NATO’s jap flank on Could 16, 2026.
Polish officers mentioned migrants have used Molotov cocktails in a minimum of two incidents, sparking fires close to the border. Troopers additionally spoke of a Polish serviceman who died after being stabbed by an unlawful migrant on the frontier.
Korkosz mentioned the problem will not be solely violence, however exhaustion.
“A couple of months in the past, we had minus-20-degree winters, so 12-hour responsibility throughout these circumstances is basically demanding,” she mentioned. “Many troopers are right here for a very long time, and it’s getting increasingly more tough, this lengthy separation from their relations.”
Nonetheless, she mentioned the troops are ready.
“The coaching consists of decision-making beneath stress in an ambiguous operational atmosphere,” Korkosz mentioned. “That’s why after we are right here on the border, we’re actually well-prepared for performing our duties.”
Poland says the border defenses are working. Amb. Olendzki mentioned the decrease variety of crossings this yr displays the bodily barrier, the elevated effectiveness of the Border Guard and the army presence. However he warned the menace has not disappeared, solely shifted.
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Troopers from Poland’s 18th Division reveal battlefield medical coaching close to the Belarus border after a serviceman from the division was killed in an assault by an unlawful migrant. Could sixteenth, 2026. (Efrat Lachter/Fox Information)
“Seeing the truth that the Polish-Belarusian border is kind of effectively guarded, our adversaries are simply pushing migrants via the borders of our neighboring international locations,” he mentioned. “So it hasn’t ended, however it’s modified the course. The menace nonetheless exists, and we should be vigilant.”
That issues to NATO as a result of Poland’s border with Belarus will not be solely Warsaw’s border. It is usually the jap fringe of the European Union and NATO territory.
Belarus is Russia’s closest ally and allowed its territory to be used for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Russia could also be attempting to tug Belarus deeper into the conflict and will use Belarusian territory to threaten Ukraine or perhaps a NATO nation.
That worry is central to Poland’s safety posture.
Throughout a gathering with reporters in Warsaw, Polish International Minister Radosław Sikorski informed Fox Information Digital Russia’s conflict in opposition to Ukraine is, for Poland, “a matter of nationwide security and existence.”
However Sikorski mentioned the menace to NATO international locations is already wider than the battlefield in Ukraine.
“We had on NATO international locations’ territories assassinations, quite a few drone attacks on airports, on vital infrastructure,” Sikorski mentioned. “We had very severe cyberattacks.”
Polish troopers stand watch close to the Belarus border, the place officers say migration stress has advanced right into a type of hybrid warfare concentrating on NATO’s jap flank. Could sixteenth, 2026. (Efrat Lachter/Fox Information Digital)
Sikorski mentioned Poland confronted a Russian-instigated cyberattack final December on vital vitality infrastructure that Warsaw believes was supposed “to black out a part of Poland.”
The warning suits a broader sample of issues throughout NATO’s jap flank. The Related Press reported earlier this yr that balloons from Belarus had crossed into Polish airspace for a 3rd consecutive night time, with Polish forces describing the incidents as makes an attempt to check air protection responses.
For Poland, unlawful migration, cyberattacks, drones, sabotage and disinformation are usually not separate issues. They’re completely different items of 1 Russian and Belarusian stress marketing campaign in opposition to NATO.
Olendzki mentioned Poland’s position is to cease the stress earlier than it strikes deeper into Europe or past.
“Standing on guard on the jap flank of NATO, we’re offering safety not solely to Poland, to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, however to whole NATO, additionally to the US,” he mentioned.
US Border Patrol brokers put together to move migrants for asylum declare processing on the US-Mexico border in Campo, California, US, on Friday, April 5, 2024. Final week a federal decide sharply questioned the Biden administration’s place that it bears no accountability for housing and feeding migrant youngsters whereas they wait in makeshift camps alongside the US-Mexico border, reported the AP. (Mark Abramson/Bloomberg through Getty Photos)
That U.S. connection is a central a part of Poland’s message to Washington: The jap flank will not be a distant European drawback, however a entrance line in a broader confrontation with Russia and its allies.
Poland now spends practically 5% of its GDP on protection, the best fee in NATO, if primarily based on GPD. Sikorski mentioned Warsaw has lengthy taken protection spending significantly.
“We by no means went beneath 2% protection spending,” Sikorski mentioned. “Now we’re spending nearly 5%. That is actual military spending.”
He mentioned the jap flank has develop into extra influential inside NATO as a result of international locations closest to Russia have been confirmed proper.
A Polish border guard on the Polish-Belarus border fence close to the village of Ozierany Male, Poland, on Friday, Jul. 4, 2025. (Damian Lemanski/Bloomberg through Getty Photos)
“The jap flank is far more highly effective than even 5 years in the past,” Sikorski mentioned. “We have been right about the nature of Putin’s regime and Russia’s aggressive technique.”
That view has formed Poland’s method to the US. Warsaw desires American troops to stay in Europe, however Polish officers additionally acknowledge that Europe should assume extra of the protection burden as U.S. consideration more and more shifts towards China and the Indo-Pacific.
Sikorski mentioned Poland understands that “Europe ceased to be angle primary for U.S. foreign policy,” however desires any change in America’s position to be “gradual and well-designed.”
He added that Poland desires the shift in trans-Atlantic safety to be “not a divorce, however a brand new sort of relationship.”
For now, that relationship is being examined alongside a chilly, wooded border the place Poland says NATO’s future wars might already be taking form.
The Polish troopers patrolling the frontier don’t describe their mission in grand geopolitical phrases. Korkosz mentioned she joined the army as a result of she needed to do “one thing which issues.”
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Members of Poland’s 18th “Iron Division” patrol the Belarus border as Warsaw accuses Belarus and Russia of funneling unlawful migrants towards NATO territory. Could 16, 2026. (Efrat Lachter/Fox Information Digital)
However to Polish officers, the mission on the Belarus border is far larger than immigration enforcement.
It’s a warning to the remainder of NATO that the alliance’s subsequent conflict might not start with tanks crossing a border, however with migrants pushed via forests, cyberattacks on power grids, drones close to airports and disinformation campaigns designed to fracture societies from inside.
