Tear gas and water cannons to stop migrants trying to enter Poland and stone throwing at border guards. It is the latest, dramatic, snapshot of the crisis on the border with Belarus, which sees Warsaw as the gateway to Europe and the Moscow-backed Minsk regime opposite.

A hybrid war, led by Alexander Lukashenko using refugees, which Brussels is trying to contain with sanctions and by financing Poland with over 100 million euros for the protection of its borders. But "not to build walls".

In November alone, five thousand attempts were made to force the Polish border by refugees fleeing the Middle East amassed in Belarus, compared to a few dozen in the whole of 2020. In the last few hours, however, the situation has degenerated.

"The migrants attacked our officers with stones and tried to destroy the fence, and tear gas was used to stop this attack," the Warsaw Defense Ministry reported, denouncing that an officer was seriously injured, while the guards of Belarusian borders stood by and watched. Minsk reacted by accusing Poland of wanting to "further aggravate the situation and stifle any progress towards an agreement" that would put an end to the crisis. Moscow called the use of tear gas "absolutely unacceptable" and Vladimir Putin again heard Lukashenko on the phone.

Many spoke of a real "slaughter".

On the contrary, a new condemnation of the Belarusian regime has come from the European chancelleries, which "exploits migratory flows in an inhuman and shameless way" to "destabilize" the European Union, said French Prime Minister Jean Castex.

The border incidents occurred in the aftermath of the new EU squeeze against Minsk, with the launch of the fifth sanctions package, but also of a new attempt at mediation by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who in an interview with Lukashenko he asked for humanitarian assistance at the border. The Belarusian government seems to have accepted the appeal, because it announced its intention to welcome all migrants in a logistic center near the Bruzgi border crossing, "until the matter is resolved".

There are about 4,000 refugees who are currently massed on the border, in freezing conditions and in inhumane conditions. There are also many children. A tragedy at least partially alleviated by the many Polish civilians, who are hosting those migrants who manage to cross the border in their homes at the border, in contravention of the rules imposed by Warsaw.