Putin is likely to have teamed up with Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar to provoke a new migration crisis in the European Union. The European Commission has tracked an increase in flights between the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi and Minsk.
This is reported by The Telegraph, citing unnamed officials familiar with the matter.
The newspaper has reviewed data from open sources, which indicate a sharp increase in the number of flights in recent months between the Libyan city of Benghazi and the Belarusian capital. The flights are operated by the national carrier Belavia.
In May, there were only two flights between the cities, in June their number increased to five, and in July there were four.
A member of the European Commission notes that the frequency and nature of these flights, especially at short notice, raise questions about potential coordination or facilitation of illegal migration flows.
"The regime is using migrants as a tool to put pressure on the borders of the European Union, and our neighbors are really suffering from this," Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said in an interview with The Telegraph.
According to her, these are all Lukashenkoʼs actions, just business for his regime and a tool to pressure the EU regarding its principled and firm position in supporting democracy.
At the same time, The Telegraph writes that Putin is increasing his influence in Libya, which could pose a threat to Europe. Russia has moved equipment from Syria to Libya and supports local military leader Haftar, who already has hundreds of Russian armored vehicles and air defense systems in his arsenal. Haftar controls a network of migrant smugglers, and Libya is one of the main routes to Europe through the Mediterranean. The EU fears that Moscow will use migration as a weapon, as it has already done with Belarus.
“Of course, there is a danger that Russia will use migrants and the issue of migration in general as a weapon against Europe. The weaponization of migrants is happening, and of course we also fear that Russia intends to do the same with Libya,” EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner told Politico last month.
Migration crisis
Putin’s possible alliance with Libya could lead to a repeat of the migration crisis of 2021, The Telegraph reports, when tens of thousands of potential asylum seekers were helped across the border through Belarus in what is believed to be a Russian-orchestrated attempt to destabilize the EU.
The self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko was accused of allowing migrants to land in Minsk and then helping to transport them to makeshift camps on the borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
Belarusian officials have been advising migrants from the camps on how to cross the border, in what analysts say was a coordinated effort by Putin to divert attention from Russian forces massed on the Ukrainian border ahead of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
- In 2025, Lithuania filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice against Belarus, claiming that the authorities organized the flow of migrants to its border. The court is demanding that Belarus compensate for the damage, including the cost of building a border wall, and guarantee that this will not happen again. It is about €200 million.
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