Poland has installed the first cluster of an artillery defence system on a new observation tower in Ozierany, near the Polish-Belarusian border, as part of efforts to strengthen security against threats from unmanned aerial vehicles, officials said Tuesday.
"It is a special tower because the first cluster of the artillery system that will defend the Polish border is being installed on this tower. Already in January this cluster will be launched," Interior and Administration Minister Marcin Kierwiński said during a press briefing in Ozierany.
Kierwiński and Prime Minister Donald Tusk also visited the Border Guard post in Bobrowniki on Tuesday as part of the latest phase of strengthening security along the Polish-Belarusian border.
The tower in Ozierany is one of five such structures built in recent months. They have been installed along the Svisloch and Istoczanka rivers, among other locations. The total investment cost was approximately 47 million zloty (€£11.1 million).
More than 4,000 soldiers and several hundred Border Guard and police officers will spend Christmas Eve on duty, Tusk said.
"In total, more than 6,000 people will spend Christmas Eve right on the border and we will think warmly of them and we will all remember that thanks to them, everyone else can spend this Christmas safely in their homes," he said.
Kierwiński spoke about heightened border security, saying that "almost 30,000 attempts to illegally cross the Polish border" had been thwarted. "This shows what a challenge we are facing," he said.
However, activists who continue to provide humanitarian aid on the Polish-Belarusian border and human rights organisations say that although there are now fewer calls from migrants for help, the humanitarian situation remains difficult.
While reinforcements of the Polish-Belarusian border continue, activists providing humanitarian assistance to migrants report both requests for support and finding bodies in the forest.
By July, the Polish Border Guard and the Prosecutor's Office had confirmed finding at least 10 corpses of foreigners, although the exact number of victims remains unknown.
The organisation We Are Monitoring, which documents the crisis in numbers, reported 14 cases in 2025.
Aid groups continue to receive calls for help, an activist working in Podlasie who spoke on condition of anonymity told Euronews.
"(Belarusian President Aliaksandr) Lukashenka withdrew migrants from the zone as they had been making arrangements since the borders opened, but this is not a man you can make arrangements with," they said.
"The problem is that these people are near Minsk, near Grodno and so on and they are trying to go through the (border crossing) and they can't do that either because the Court doesn't give them an interim (application for temporary protection)."
Belarus' military activities are not made public, but there is increasing talk of its involvement in Russia's all-out war in Ukraine.
Recently, the opposition organisation BELPOL revealed in a YouTube video that a weapons factory is being built near Minsk.
According to the group, the Uchastok project, which has been under construction since November 2023, envisages the launch of a complete production cycle for artillery and rocket ammunition of Soviet calibres - 122mm and 152mm. The plant is scheduled for completion in December 2026.
A dedicated production plant has reportedly been established for the project, which is expected to play a major role in the expansion of the Belarusian munitions industry. The factory is located in the Slutsk region, some 60 kilometres from Minsk.
A BELPOL representative noted that Belarus does not currently manufacture key explosives components, meaning the plant will need to use imported technology and raw materials, with Russia and China as Belarus' main partners in the venture.
"Given the scope and volume of production, the end customer will be the Russian Federation," opposition figure Uladzimir Zychar said in the report published on YouTube.
The government has long drawn public attention to the problem of illegal border crossings and migration. At the same time, there are increasing claims that the real threats are more likely to come from Belarus' military actions, according to Poland-based Belarusian news outlet Belsat.