Belarus forbids transit to Katyn for Polish officials

The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared this flagrant outrage today.

The Belarusian MFA says it is ready to offer assistance to citizens of Poland willing to visit Katyn, but not to certain Polish officials.

As Andrei Savinykh, the Belarusian MFA press secretary, told Interfax-Zapad news agency on Friday, “We are informed about the plans of the Polish party regarding the commemoration events in Katyn near Smolenk”. He reminded that “the Belarusian party had earlier rendered every possible assistance to Polish official delegations and families, including urgent and free visa issuing, giving freedom of transit through the country and accepting delegations in Vitsebsk”. “We are ready to offer the necessary assistance now, if there any requests from the Polish party,” he emphasized.

But the MFA official representative noted that “it may be supposed that hundreds of Poles going to visit this event will include not only relatives, but also officials, whose participation seems to be determined only by political ambitions”. “There may be some persons denied entry to the Republic of Belarus, but it is their problem,” Savinykh said. The MFA press secretary said it in reply to a question whether Belarus would change its approach towards assistance to representatives of Poland in view of the recently announced response measures to the EU and US sanctions.