Putin's warlord ally flying migrants into Europe

Telegraph

14 hours ago

Vladimir Putin appears to have teamed up with a Libyan warlord to trigger a fresh migrant crisis in the European Union.
The European Commission has tracked an increased number of flights between the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi and Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
Officials said the pattern suggested possible co-ordination with Gen Khalifa Haftar, the military strongman who controls much of eastern Libya, to facilitate a wave of illegal migration into the bloc.
It could mark a repeat of the summer of 2021, when tens of thousands of would-be asylum seekers were helped across the borders of Belarus in what officials warned was a Russian-orchestrated attempt to destabilise the EU.
'We are monitoring recent Minsk-Benghazi flights operated by Belavia Airlines,' a commission official told The Telegraph.
'The frequency and nature of these flights, particularly within a short timeframe, raise questions about potential co-ordination or facilitation of irregular migration flows.'
Open-source data reviewed by The Telegraph shows a spike in flights between the Libyan city and the Belarusian capital on the flag-carrying airline in recent months.
In May, there were just two flights between the cities, jumping to five in June and four in July.
In the past, Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian dictator, had been accused of allowing migrants to land in Minsk on similar flights before helping transport them to makeshift camps on the borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
From the camps, the migrants were said to have been advised by Belarusian officials on how to cross the frontier without being detected.
Analysts have since said this was done in co-ordination with Putin to distract from his forces massed on the borders with Ukraine before his invasion in February 2022.
After launching the bloodiest conflict since the Second World War, the Russian president has ordered a series of hybrid attacks on Nato and EU nations supporting Kyiv's defence.
In the first seven months of this year, the EU has recorded around 5,000 illegal crossings at its eastern land borders.
While this is down from last year, the few flights between Libya and Belarus could lead to a new influx of arrivals across the frontier.
Some in Europe say Putin could use his growing influence in Libya to once again target the continent.
The Russian president has invested efforts in building a presence in the North African country since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
As Russia evacuated its Syrian bases, there was evidence equipment was being moved from the port of Tartus to Libya.
When Haftar held a parade of his Libyan Arab Armed Force last month, it showcased hundreds of Russian armoured vehicles and air defence systems.
He is known to control a small army of people smugglers operating out of Libya, one of the main crossing points from Africa to Europe across the Mediterranean.
'The fact that Russia is increasing its influence in Libya is precisely our concern, and that's why we must also engage with Libya,' Magnus Brunner, the EU's migration commissioner, told Politico last month.
'There is certainly a danger that Russia will use migrants and the migration issue as a whole as a weapon against Europe. This weaponisation is taking place, and of course we also fear that Russia intends to do the same with Libya.'
Mr Brunner was one of a group of high-ranking EU officials on an ill-fated visit to Benghazi last month, which was abruptly scrapped after the delegation landed at the city's Benina airport before being told they were persona non grata.
Belarus has been identified by Frontex, the agency that polices the EU's external border, as one of the main challenges the bloc faces in its fight against illegal migration this year.
The evidence suggests that Lukashenko, Putin and Haftar have teamed up to exploit the frontier once again.
'Migrants are used as an instrument by the regime to put pressure on the European Union's borders, and our neighbours are really suffering from this,' Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarus's exiled opposition leader, told The Telegraph.
'This is all the actions of Lukashenko and just business for his regime and a tool to put pressure on the EU for the principled and strong position in supporting democracy.'