Russia blamed the EU on Wednesday for the ongoing migrant crisis at the Poland-Belarus border.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that in a briefing, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the EU was failing to uphold its own humanitarian standards and that the bloc was actively trying to “strangle” Belarus, Reuters reported.

Moscow responded after Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of orchestrating the unfolding humanitarian crisis at the frontier, which has seen thousands of migrants from the Middle East, whose transit has been organized by the Belarusian regime, trying to enter Poland along its border with Belarus.

The escalating situation shows “a determination to carry out the scenario of rebuilding the Russian empire,” Morawiecki said, adding that it was a “directed spectacle.”

But Peskov hit back: “It is apparent that a humanitarian catastrophe is looming against the background of Europeans’ reluctance to demonstrate commitment to their European values.”

He added that Morawiecki’s comment that Putin had enabled the border crisis was “absolutely irresponsible and unacceptable.”