WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Lawmakers in the Polish parliament observed a minute of silence on Wednesday to honor a young soldier who was stabbed at the Polish-Belarusian border amid a migration crisis that Poland says has been engineered by Russia and Belarus.
The soldier, Mateusz Sitek, was stabbed in the chest by a migrant who thrust a knife through a gap in a steel fence on May 28. He died of his wounds more than a week later, on June 6.
Sitek was being laid to rest in private observances on Wednesday in his home village of Nowy Lubiel in central Poland, while a special Mass was held in his honor at the Field Cathedral of the Polish Army in Warsaw.
Speaker Szymon Holownia asked lawmakers to “honor the sacrifice of this young hero,” saying he had been “attacked by a bandit.”
In parliament, some lawmakers shouted: “Honor and glory to the heroes!”
The death has heightened a sense of insecurity that is already elevated due to Russia’s war against Ukraine just across another part of Poland’s eastern border.
The Belarus border crisis began in 2021, when migrants began to arrive at the European Union’s eastern border, coming through Belarus and trying to enter EU member states Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
Poland and other EU governments accused Belarus’ longtime dictator Alexander Lukashenko of luring migrants from the Middle East and Africa in large numbers with visas and other assistance in order to destabilize the bloc.
The sense of threat has intensified recently. Poland says it is seeing more activity by Russian and Belarusian security forces and growing aggression at the border.
After the attack on the soldier, the government of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that a buffer zone along parts of the border with Belarus would be created with access restrictions. The Interior Ministry said it was expected to go into force on Thursday.
Refugee rights activists have criticized the plans for the buffer zone, saying it will prevent them from being able to assist migrants who cross the border and find themselves in swamps and forest areas needing food or medical assistance.