Russia traded barbs with Western members of the UN Security Council on Thursday (11 November) over a crisis on the border between Belarus and Poland, with Russia’s deputy UN envoy suggesting his European colleagues have “masochist inclinations.”

Estonia, France, Ireland, Norway, the United States and Britain raised the migrant crisis during a closed-door meeting of the 15-member body.

“We condemn the orchestrated instrumentalisation of human beings whose lives and wellbeing have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus, with the objective of destabilizing neighboring countries and the European Union’s external border and diverting attention away from its own increasing human rights violations,” they said in a statement.

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The statement made no mention of Belarus ally Russia, which before the meeting rejected western allegations that it was working in conjunction with Minsk to send the migrants over the EU’s eastern border into Poland.

They described the Belarusian approach as “unacceptable,” and accused President Alexander Lukashenko of becoming a threat to regional stability and called for a “strong international reaction” to hold Belarus accountable, pledging “to discuss further measures that we can take”.

Read more: Euractiv