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How Russia Pushes Migrants into Europe Through Secret Underground Tunnels
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Polish border authorities have identified a new escalation in the hybrid warfare tactics employed by the Belarusian regime: the use of sophisticated, reinforced tunnels to smuggle migrants into European Union territory.
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According to a report by The Telegraph on February 25, 2026, Polish border guards in the Podlaskie Voivodeship discovered four distinct tunnels throughout 2025, suggesting a shift toward more permanent underground infrastructure.
Military experts and Polish officials indicate that the construction of these tunnels required professional engineering skills typical of Middle Eastern militant groups.
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According to The Telegraph, Deputy Interior Minister Czesław Mroczek stated that the decision to involve specialists from the Middle East was likely a reaction to the high effectiveness of Poland’s surface-level barriers. Specialists believe the structures were reportedly designed by Hamas experts to ensure durability under the border’s heavy soil.
Technical details provided by Polish authorities highlight the complexity of the structures:
Reinforcement: video footage reveals tunnels approximately 1.5 meters high, reinforced with concrete supports—a signature technique reportedly utilized by Hamas in subterranean networks;
Scale: one significant tunnel discovered in December 2025 extended 50 meters into Belarusian territory and emerged 10 meters past the border inside Poland;
Volume: during the December discovery, authorities intercepted 180 migrants, primarily from Afghanistan and Pakistan, attempting to use the passage.
Lieutenant Colonel Katarzyna Zdanowicz told The Telegraph that “physical and electronic security measures on the border, such as thermal imaging cameras and detection systems, allow us to immediately react to any attempts to violate the state border, even underground.”
The specific design of the tunnels has led specialists to draw parallels with the subterranean networks used by Iranian-backed groups. Lynette Nusbacher, an American military historian and strategist, told The Telegraph that the expertise for such deep-tunneling projects is rooted in the Middle East. “So if you want deep tunneling specialists, that’s where you look,” Nusbacher noted.
Major Rob Campbell, a fortification specialist and former British Army engineer, analyzed the footage of the Polish tunnels and suggested the involvement of “specialists from Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”
Similarly, retired Colonel Sarit Zehavi, a former Israeli intelligence officer, noted that while pro-Iranian groups are primary candidates, such expertise could also be held by other regional actors, including Kurdish militias or Islamic State remnants.
The use of migration as a “weapon” has been a consistent element of the Belarusian and Russian hybrid strategy against Poland and the Baltic states since 2021.
Earlier, on January 14, Latvia’s Ministry of Defense stated that Belarusian security services were directly involved in facilitating illegal migration into the EU, citing evidence gathered by Latvia’s armed forces and border authorities.
According to the statement, migrants were transported in Belarusian military vehicles, escorted by border guards, and in some cases found carrying equipment and documents linked to a Belarusian intelligence unit, which Latvian officials described this as part of a broader hybrid threat campaign.
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