Kremlin criticizes Polish decision to deploy tank battalion on border with Belarus

MOSCOW

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday criticized the Polish decision to deploy a tank battalion on the border with Belarus, saying it is "one more step to escalation."

"Surely this is one more step to ... escalation and nothing else," Peskov told at a news conference in Moscow, commenting on the Saturday announcement by Polish National Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak.

The Belarusian authorities know what to do in such a situation to ensure the country's security, he added.

Turning to claims of a "Ukrainian trace" in the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage in the Baltic Sea, the spokesman said the investigators should pay attention to Kyiv's involvement is being cited more and more often in different sources.

"Ukrainian traces of this sabotage, terrorist act, appear more and more in various reports, investigations, media publications," he said.

Moscow is carefully studying all the data related to the case and urges investigators to make the results of their search public, to name culprits, contractors, performers -- all involved sides, he stressed.

Dmitry Peskov welcomed the evacuation of the Russian citizens from the Gaza Strip and thanked all parties that made it possible. "We expect the process of exit of our citizens to continue, and that all willing to leave Gaza will be able to do it. A lot has to be done so that all willing people leave Gaza," he said.

As many as 70 Russian citizens, including 28 children, left the Gaza Strip via the Egyptian Rafah border crossing on Sunday.