Thread by @Reuters

The crisis on Poland's border with Belarus will last months, the Polish defence minister said, as several thousand migrants remain stranded on the EU's eastern frontier in what the bloc calls a deliberate blackmail campaign by Minsk reut.rs/3nmdk3K 1/6

Nine Polish service members were injured on Tuesday and Poland used water cannon against small groups of migrants throwing stones across the barbed wire border fence 2/6

Belarusian state news agency BELTA said border guards had started moving some migrants to a reception center away from the frontier. Belarusian and Polish border guards said around 2,000 migrants remained at the fence 3/6

European countries accuse Minsk of flying in thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, and pushing them to cross the border illegally, as a tactic to punish Europe for sanctions imposed over a Belarusian crackdown on pro-democracy protesters 4/6

Belarus calls the accusation it created the crisis absurd but says the EU must lift sanctions if it wants to resolve it 5/6

'We have to be prepared that this situation on the Belarusian border won't settle swiftly, we have to be prepared for months; I hope not years,' Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told a morning interview with Polish public radio.

Full story: reut.rs/3nmdk3K 6/6