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This is the second part of a series examining the challenges facing nato alliance.
poland–belarus border – Riding in a military convoy with armored vehicles from Poland’s 18th “Iron Division” on the country’s 521-kilometre border with Belarus, soldiers pointed to dense forests where they say Europe’s latest form of warfare is unfolding.
Polish officials have warned that illegal migrants, armed by Russia and Belarus to destabilize NATO’s eastern flank, are also making their way to the United States — part of what Warsaw calls an ongoing war against the Western alliance that has direct implications for American security.
At one time the border was guarded primarily by Poland’s border guards and police. But after years of mounting pressure from illegal crossings, Polish officials say the army was deployed because the situation had grown too large and too dangerous to handle as a traditional immigration challenge.
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Soldiers of Poland’s 18th “Iron Division” take part in a military exercise on the Poland-Belarus border in what Polish officials describe as part of a Russian and Belarusian campaign to weaponize illegal migration against NATO countries. (Efrat Letcher/Fox News Digital.)
Now, border security is done in layers: troops, border guards and quick-reaction forces. A temporary barrier built in 2021 has become an electronic fence supported by surveillance systems and military patrols. Polish officials say the migrants trying to cross the border have come from countries including Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan and India.
They describe the crisis as “artificial migration”, saying that illegal people are brought to Belarus from the Middle East, Africa and Asia in an effort to pressure and destabilize NATO countries and then escorted by Belarusian authorities to the Polish border.
Military officials at the border said the peak was in 2021, when there were 39,697 illegal border crossing attempts. By 2025, it was 29,869, slightly less than in 2024. So far in 2026, he says, they’ve seen a big decline.
For Warsaw, the numbers tell only part of the story.
Polish officials say the border pressure is not spontaneous illegal migration, but a Russian-backed Belarusian operation designed to destabilize NATO from within.
“We are at war,” Poland’s Foreign Ministry Ambassador Krzysztof Olendzki told Fox News Digital after a border visit.
“Not only Poland, but also all the countries on the eastern side of NATO are at war,” Olendzki said. “We may not see this as a classical war with troops, tanks, etc., but this war is being waged by our adversaries, Belarus and Russia, who are practically using migrants as an asymmetric weapon against NATO countries.”
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File photo shows mostly male illegal immigrants waiting in a closed zone prepared by the Belarusian government within the border zone after clearing camps on the Poland-Belarus border in the Grodno region of Belarus November 18, 2021. (Sefa Karakan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The crisis dates back to 2021, when Poland, Lithuania and Latvia accused the regime of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging migrants from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere to travel to Belarus and enter the EU illegally. Belarus has denied planning the influx, but Poland and the EU have described the operation as hybrid warfare.
Olendzki said the goal is not only to push people across the border, but to create chaos inside Western societies.
The border visit underlined how far Poland has gone in hardening what it considers one of NATO’s weakest borders.
Captain Angelika Korcz of Poland’s 18th Division described the day-to-day stress on soldiers stationed there.
“Many times soldiers are faced with aggression from illegal groups of immigrants, and they have to act appropriately and peacefully in accordance with the law and procedures while protecting themselves,” Korkosz told Fox News Digital.
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A Polish soldier stands vigil near the Belarus border, where officials say migration pressure has evolved into a hybrid war targeting NATO’s eastern flank May 16, 2026
Polish authorities said migrants have used Molotov cocktails in at least two incidents, starting fires near the border. The soldiers also talked about a Polish soldier who died after being stabbed by an illegal migrant at the border.
Korkoz said the challenge is not just violence, but also exhaustion.
“A few months ago, we had minus 20 degree winters here, so 12-hour duty during these conditions is really demanding,” he said. “Many soldiers have been here for a long time, and such a long separation from their relatives is becoming even more difficult.”
Still, he said the troops are prepared.
“The training involves making decisions under pressure in an ambiguous operational environment,” Korkoz said. “That’s why when we’re here at the border, we’re really well prepared to perform our duties.”
Poland says border security is working. Amb. Olendzki said the low number of crossings this year reflects the physical barrier, the increased effectiveness of border guards and the military presence. But he warned that the threat has not ended, it has only increased.
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Soldiers of Poland’s 18th Division perform battlefield medical training near the Belarus border after a soldier from the division was killed in an attack by an illegal immigrant. 16 May 2026. (Efret Lacher/Fox News)
“Given the fact that the Polish-Belarusian border is quite well protected, our adversaries are pushing migrants through the borders of our neighboring countries,” he said. “So it has not ended, but it has changed direction. The threat still exists, and we must remain vigilant.”
This matters to NATO because Poland’s border with Belarus is not just Warsaw’s border. It is also the eastern edge of the European Union and NATO territory.
Belarus is Russia’s closest ally and has allowed its territory to be used for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia could try to draw Belarus deeper into the war and use Belarusian territory to threaten Ukraine or even a NATO country.
This fear is at the heart of Poland’s security situation.
During a meeting with journalists in Warsaw, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski told Fox News Digital that Russia’s war against Ukraine is, for Poland, “a matter of national security and survival.”
But Sikorsky said the threat to NATO countries is already broader than the Ukrainian battlefield.
“We carried out assassinations in the territories of NATO countries, carried out numerous drone strikes on airports, carried out attacks on critical infrastructure,” Sikorsky said. “We suffered very serious cyber attacks.”
Polish soldiers stand watch near the Belarus border, where officials say the migration pressure has evolved into a hybrid war targeting NATO’s eastern flank. 16 May 2026. (Efret Lacher/Fox News Digital)
Sikorski said Poland suffered a Russia-inspired cyberattack on critical energy infrastructure last December that Warsaw believes was aimed at “blacking out part of Poland.”
The warning fits a broader pattern of concerns on NATO’s eastern flank. The Associated Press reported earlier this year that balloons from Belarus had entered Polish airspace for the third consecutive night, with Polish forces describing the incidents as an attempt to test air defense responses.
For Poland, illegal migration, cyber attacks, drones, sabotage and disinformation are not isolated problems. They are separate parts of a Russian and Belarusian pressure campaign against NATO.
Olendzki said Poland’s role is to stop the pressure before it spreads to Europe or beyond.
“By standing guard on NATO’s eastern flank, we are providing security not only to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, but to the entire NATO, including the United States,” he said.
U.S. Border Patrol agents prepare to transport migrants for asylum claim processing at the U.S.-Mexico border in Campo, California, U.S., Friday, April 5, 2024. A federal judge last week sharply questioned the Biden administration’s position that it has no responsibility for housing and feeding migrant children while they wait in makeshift camps at the US-Mexico border, the AP reported. (Mark Abramson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
That U.S. connection is a central part of Poland’s message to Washington: The eastern flank is not a distant European problem, but the front line of a broader confrontation with Russia and its allies.
Poland now spends about 5% of its GDP on defence, the highest rate in NATO based on GPD. Sikorski said Warsaw has long taken defense spending seriously.
“We never went below 2% defense spending,” Sikorsky said. “Now we’re spending about 5%. That’s real military spending.”
He said that the eastern part within NATO has become more influential because the countries closest to Russia have been proven right.
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A Polish border guard at the Polish-Belarus border fence near the village of Ozierny Male, Poland, on Friday, July 4, 2025. (Damian Lemansky/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The East Side is much more powerful than it was five years ago,” Sikorski said. “We were right about the nature of Putin’s regime and Russia’s aggressive strategy.”
That approach has shaped Poland’s approach toward the United States. Warsaw wants U.S. forces to remain in Europe, but Polish officials also acknowledge that Europe must shoulder more of the defense burden as U.S. attention increasingly shifts to China and the Indo-Pacific.
Sikorski said Poland understands that “Europe is no longer the number one angle for US foreign policy,” but he wants any change in the US role to be “gradual and well-designed”.
He said Poland wants the transition to trans-Atlantic security to be “not a divorce, but a new kind of relationship.”
For now, that relationship is being tested on the cold, wooded border, where Poland says NATO’s future wars may already be taking shape.
Polish soldiers patrolling the border do not describe their mission in grand geopolitical terms. Korkoz said she joined the Army because she “wanted to do something that mattered.”
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Members of Poland’s 18th “Iron Division” patrol the Belarus border as Warsaw accuses Belarus and Russia of sending illegal migrants to NATO territory. 16 May 2026. (Efrat Lacher/Fox News Digital)
But for Polish officials, the mission at the Belarus border is much bigger than immigration enforcement.
It is a warning to the rest of NATO that the alliance’s next war will not start with tanks crossing the border, but with pushing migrants through forests, cyber attacks on power grids, drones near airports, and disinformation campaigns designed to tear societies apart from within.
