Announcement comes after a Belarusian courtroom sentenced a journalist of Polish origin to eight years in jail.

Poland will shut a key border crossing with Belarus till additional discover, the Polish inside minister has mentioned, as relations between Warsaw and Minsk sink to new lows.

The already tense ties between Poland and Belarus had been additional strained on Wednesday when a journalist of Polish origin was sentenced to eight years in jail by a Belarusian courtroom in a trial Warsaw says was politically motivated.

“As a result of necessary curiosity of state safety, I made a decision to droop till additional discover from 1200 [11:00 GMT] on Feb. 10 this yr site visitors on the Polish-Belarusian border crossing in Bobrowniki,” Mariusz Kaminski wrote on Twitter.

Bobrowniki, greater than 200km (125 miles) northeast of Warsaw, is likely one of the major crossing factors between Poland and Belarus.

Anton Bychkovsky, a spokesman for the Belarus state border service, mentioned the transfer was unwarranted and will trigger the remaining crossings to turn into overloaded, Russia’s state TASS information company reported.

Bychkovsky advised the Belarus STV channel solely two of the six major border posts could be operational, which he mentioned would harm truckers and residents, in keeping with TASS.

“The Belarusian facet sees no goal causes for taking such a call on condition that there is no such thing as a menace from the territory of Belarus,” TASS quoted him as saying.

Kaminski additionally mentioned that on account of the jailing of journalist Andrzej Poczobut, he would apply for additional individuals related with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to be added to sanctions lists.

A Belarusian courtroom on Monday sentenced Poczobut for “instigating hatred in opposition to spiritual and nationwide teams, and rehabilitating Nazism”, the Polish state-run information company PAP reported.

Poland’s cost d’affaires in Minsk was summoned to the Belarusian overseas ministry, the Polish overseas ministry’s spokesman mentioned on Thursday.

Poland has turn into a key refuge for opponents of Lukashenko in addition to one in all Ukraine’s staunchest allies since Belarusian ally Russia invaded the nation in February final yr.

Russia used Belarus as a staging publish for its in the end abortive advance on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

In 2021, Poland and the European Union mentioned Belarus had engineered a refugee disaster on its borders, an accusation Minsk denies. Extra just lately, Poland has condemned the vandalism of Polish graves in Belarus.

Hundreds of individuals of Polish origin reside in Belarus because the west of the nation was Polish territory till borders had been redrawn after World Conflict II.