Latvian army uses tear gas, warning shot against migrants from Belarus

VILNIUS, July 22 - Latvian soldiers used tear gas and fired a warning shot to stop migrants trying to enter from Belarus, the army said on Wednesday, as the prime minister said Latvians were worried about a rising number of migrants trying to cross the border.

Latvia, along with Poland and Lithuania, has accused Belarus and its ally Russia of orchestrating migrant flows from the Middle East and Africa in an attempt to destabilise countries on NATO's eastern flank, an allegation both Minsk and Moscow deny.

In the latest incident, five or more migrants acted aggressively and threw logs towards soldiers as they attempted to enter Latvia, the army said in a Wednesday morning post on X, adding the episode took place in the past 24 hours.

"To halt the unlawful actions and prevent further escalation of the situation, soldiers used tear gas", it said.

"As the individuals continued to ignore the officials' lawful demands and maintained aggressive behaviour, one warning shot was fired into the air, after which the individuals retreated to Belarusian territory", said the army.

In an interview with Reuters last week, Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs said that the number of migrants attempting to enter Latvia from Belarus has doubled recently.

He did not provide exact numbers, but described the situation as a "hybrid threat", which has caused Latvia to double the number of border guards at the border.

"We have a serious situation... we have used way more resources than we were anticipating. But we are handling that very well", he said.

Lithuanian and Estonian border guards as well as the Latvian army are helping at the border, he said. "(The migration) is causing a concern for the society. It is disrupting people", said Kulbergs.

In December 2021, Polish security forces turned water cannon on migrants who threw rocks across the Belarusian border, where thousands have gathered in a chaotic attempt to reach the European Union.

In December 2025, Poland said more than 180 migrants crossed into the country through a tunnel hidden in a forest on the border with Belarus.

EU and NATO member Latvia has been grappling with a migrant crisis on its Belarus frontier since 2021, accusing Minsk and Moscow of flying in people from the Middle East and Africa and attempting to push them across the frontier.

Belarus and Russia repeatedly dismissed the accusations. Belarus allowed Russian armed forces to use its territory as a staging post to invade Ukraine, Belarus' southern neighbour, in early 2022, and in May this year Belarus said its armed forces had begun training exercises involving Russian nuclear weapons. REUTERS