MOSCOW (Reuters). MOSCOW (Reuters). Despite not wanting to confront Poland, Belarus wants an answer from Europe on the question of whether it will take in 2,000 stranded migrants. This was what President Alexander Lukashenko said Monday by the Belta news agency.

In response to European sanctions, the EU has accused Belarus of inviting thousands of Middle East nationals to fly into Belarus and forcing them to enter the EU through Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Minsk has denied that it was involved in the creation of this crisis.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned Sunday that the current migrant crisis along the Belarusian border might be the beginning of “something worse”. Poland’s Border Guard said on Sunday the Belarusian military were still transporting migrants across the frontier.

As quoted by the state-owned Belta: Lukashenko stated that he does not wish for things to escalate.

“We must get across to the Poles, every Pole and prove to them that they aren’t barbarians. We don’t want confrontation. It is not necessary. He said that we know war can be avoided if we don’t go far enough.”

It will all be a disaster. This is something we fully understand. This is why we don’t like flare-ups.

Lukashenko said that he wanted Germany to take in migrants as well and complained about how the EU had not made contact with Minsk.