Radek Pietruszka/PAP

Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, has told his Finnish counterpart that the migrant situation now on Finland’s border with Russia is similar to the one that hit the Poland-Belarus border in 2021.

Finland has closed four of its border crossing with Russia in an attempt to halt a surge in asylum seekers Helsinki says is being orchestrated by Moscow.

Speaking in Warsaw following talks with Sauli Niinisto, President Duda said they had talked about economic cooperation, including the development of transport infrastructure and the development of nuclear energy.

“But above all, we talked about security issues,” added Duda. “We spoke about the migratory pressure that we are seeing today on the Russian-Finnish border, pressure primarily coming from Russia.

“We have no doubt that, today, on its border with Russia, Finland is encountering a situation similar to the one we dealt with 2021,” he added. “In short, a hybrid attack on the Finnish border, which is being carried out through a push of groups of migrants to this border.”

Duda said the situation was very difficult and, one that “we, Poles here, understand perfectly.”

In 2021, the Polish government deployed hundreds of police officers and troops to the Belarusian border owing to repeated attempts by hundreds of migrants to cross the border.

Poland has maintained that Belarus and Russia manufactured the crisis in an attempt to destabilise the EU.

Duda also promised Polish support for Finland. “As I assured the President of Finland, we lend our support with full awareness that Finland is defending not only its own border… but also the EU’s border.”

The Polish president said that Finland can count both on Polish political support and that Poland will share its gained experiences from resisting migration pressure from Belarus.