Poland will close a key border crossing with Belarus until further notice, Poland’s interior minister said on Thursday, as relations between Warsaw and Minsk hit a new low, Reuters reported.

On the Polish borderPhoto: Serhiy Bobilyov / TASS / Profimedia

Already strained relations between Poland and Belarus further soured on Wednesday when a Belarusian court sentenced a Polish-born journalist to eight years in prison in a trial Warsaw says was politically motivated.

“Due to the important interests of state security, I have decided to suspend traffic at the Polish-Belarusian checkpoint in Bobrovnyky from 12:00 on February 10 this year until further notice,” wrote Mariusz Kaminski on Twitter.

Bobrovniki, more than 200 km northeast of Warsaw, is one of the main crossing points between Poland and Belarus.

Anton Bychkovsky, a spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Belarus, said that the move was unjustified and could cause traffic jams at other checkpoints, Russian news agency TASS reported.

Bychkovsky told the Belarusian TV channel STV that only two of the six main border posts will work, which, he said, will affect drivers and citizens.

“The Belarusian side does not see objective grounds for making such a decision, given that there is no threat from the territory of Belarus,” he said, TASS quotes.

Kaminski also said that after the imprisonment of journalist Andrzej Pochobut, he will ask to include other people related to the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, on the sanctions lists.

Poland’s Chargé d’affaires in Minsk was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, the spokesman of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.

Poland has become a key haven for Lukashenka’s opponents, and Warsaw has become one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies since Belarus’ ally Russia invaded the country last February.

Russia used Belarus as a springboard for its ultimately unsuccessful offensive on the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.

In 2021, Poland and the European Union said that Belarus had provoked the migration crisis on its borders, a charge Minsk denies. Most recently, Poland condemned the vandalism of Polish graves in Belarus.

Thousands of people of Polish origin live in Belarus, as the west of the country was Polish territory before the redrawing of borders after World War II.