Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Russia has "absolutely nothing to do with" the ongoing crisis at the Poland-Belarus border, where thousands of Middle Eastern migrants are trying to make their way into Central Europe, CNN reports.
Western leaders have accused Belarus of manufacturing a migrant crisis on the European Union (EU) 's eastern-most member state, Poland, as retribution for sanctions over human rights abuses.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and his government have repeatedly denied the claims, instead blaming the West's poor immigration policy for the crossings.
"I want to tell you something else. I want everyone to know. We have absolutely nothing to do with it, Putin told Russia 24. Everyone is trying to impose responsibility on us for any reason and for no reason at all ... our aviation companies are not transporting these people. None of our companies are."
Putin added that Lukashenko claimed no involvement with the Russian airline Belavia.
"By the way, Belavia ... is not transporting them either ... yes, there are certain groups engaged in transporting these people to European countries, but they have been operating for a long time," Putin said in the interview.
Poland's defense minister announced Wednesday that they had deployed 15,000 soldiers to the border to prevent illegal crossings after the Polish Border Guard reported that around 4,500 people have tried to cross the border since the start of this month.
"A group of about 100 migrants waited for the possibility of illegal border crossing. Belarusians equipped foreigners with tear gas, which was used towards the Polish services. This and subsequent attempts to illegally cross were prevented," the border guard said on Twitter.
U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters Friday that the situation at the Belarus-Poland border was of "great concern," according to CNN.
"We've communicated our concern to Russia. We've communicated our concern to Belarus. We think it's a problem," Biden said.
Russia flew two long-range Russian Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic long-range bombers over Belarusian airspace on Wednesday and Thursday to demonstrate support for Belarus in the conflict.
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