What Kyiv protests and Warsaw's accusation showed on 9 November 2021
A look back at two political stories from the region: a mass anti-vaccination rally in Kyiv and Poland's accusation over the Belarus border crisis.
What was happening in the politics of the region on 9 November 2021? Two reports stood out: one about a protest in Kyiv, the other about the migrant crisis on the Belarus–Poland border.
On 9 November 2021, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for orchestrating the crisis on the border between Belarus and Poland. He said the crisis had its mastermind in Moscow. The statement was part of the 2021 Belarus–European Union border crisis and tied it directly to Poland–Russia relations.
Six days earlier, on 3 November 2021, several thousand people had gathered in Kyiv for a rally against COVID-19 vaccination and the restrictions introduced because of the pandemic. Participants blocked traffic in several places in the government quarter.
Together, the reports show a period in which pandemic policy was contested on the streets of Ukraine's capital, while a migration dispute on the European Union's eastern border had become a matter of open accusation between governments.
