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Three pressure points on Europe's eastern edge
Summary
A look back at the regional security reports gathered around 18 November 2021, from Ukraine's border to Poland and the Caucasus.
What did the security picture around Ukraine look like on 18 November 2021? The reports from the preceding days, 16 November, point to pressure along several borders at once.
On 16 November, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the west would have to choose between reliance on Russian gas and supporting Ukraine. He spoke amid reported buildups of the Russian military near the Ukrainian border.
Poland's frontier with Belarus
The same day, migrants at a temporarily closed checkpoint in Kuźnica, Poland, threw stones at Polish border guards. They also tried to destroy the border fence in order to break through the Belarus–Poland frontier. The guards responded with water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowd. The Polish ministry accused the Belarusian military of aiding the attacks along Poland's borders.
Clashes in the Caucasus
Further east, border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan left fifteen Armenian soldiers dead on 16 November. Azerbaijani forces captured twelve more. The two sides traded recriminations before a Russian-brokered ceasefire was agreed at 19:00 local time.
Taken together, the reports describe a region in which border security was under strain in several places at once: a reported military buildup near Ukraine, a confrontation at the Polish frontier and deadly fighting in the Caucasus.
