Belarus border crisis: Kuleba responds to German MP’s idea that Ukraine host migrants

That’s according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, who spoke at a morning show on 1+1 TV on Wednesday, November 17, responding to a question whether the EU intends to involve Ukraine in solving the problem of migrants on the border with Belarus.

The minister noted that at the official level, no proposals similar to those voiced by German MP Nils Schmid have been voiced.

"In general, the best way to engage Ukraine in anything is to accept us in the EU. When we become members of the European Union, then we will fully coordinate our efforts and jointly bear the burden of any problem or the joy of any success, including with Germany," Kuleba said.

In this context, he called on German MP Schmid and his colleagues to focus on achieving a "quite clear and simple goal" - Ukraine's membership in the EU.

"Then we will exchange views. And so far we don’t need to be offered any advice," the head of Ukrainian diplomacy concluded.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Nils Schmid, a member of Germany’s Bundestag with the Social Democratic Party, suggested involving Ukraine in resolving the refugee problem on the border between Poland and Belarus.

The lawmaker believes the EU could reach an agreement with Ukraine to ensure that the latter accepts the illegal migrants to remain on its territory while their asylum applications are being considered. Thus, he claimed, a "controlled route" to Poland would be created for migrants.

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, commenting on the said statement following an NSDC meeting on November 10 at the request of journalists, suggested that German deputies take home "two or three refugees each."

The Lukashenko regime is widely believed to be responsible for the migration crisis, ongoing from August 2021, on the borders with Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland following EU sanctions imposed on the government.

Migrants from Iraq, Syria, and a number of African countries have been arriving en masse in Belarus before being helped by the country’s security forces to get to the EU border.

According to pundits and some foreign officials, it’s Russia’s secret services that are manufacturing the migration crisis at the European Union's borders with Lukashenko’s hands. Polish expert on foreign relations Dariusz Materniak said Russia is using a strategy similar to the one they applied in Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014.

So far, thousands of migrants have been blocked in the border zone. As winter approaches, the situation threatens to escalate into a full-blown humanitarian crisis.