You sanction us again? We’ll freeze you, Lukashenko warns Europe, threatening to cut gas supply.

Warning that Belarus would not tolerate the closure of its borders, he told “the leadership of Poland, Lithuanians and other brainless figures to think before speaking.”

European leaders blame Lukashenko for orchestrating the crisis in retaliation for European sanctions. They accuse him of opening Belarusian borders to migrants, mainly from the Middle East and North Africa, who are trying to reach Europe through Belarus.

But they also face a mounting energy crisis, after gas prices soared due to low stocks in Europe, lower-than-expected wind power generation, increased demand in Asia and Russian reluctance to help bridge the shortfall.

The migrant crisis has become a worrying flash point for tensions between Europe and Belarus, which is backed by its close ally Russia. Poland has deployed thousands of troops along the border, and Russia sent two long-range strategic bombers Wednesday to patrol the Belarusian border with Europe.

Lukashenko met his Council of Ministers and ordered a tough response to Wednesday’s announcement by European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen of planned new sanctions on Belarus.

“We are heating Europe. They still threaten us that they will close the border. And if we shut off natural gas there?” he said.

“The Foreign Ministry must warn everyone in Europe: If they impose additional sanctions on us, that would be indigestible and unacceptable for us. We must answer,” he said in comments reported by the BelTA state news agency.

Lukashenko added, “We must stop at nothing in defending our sovereignty and independence.”

Europe relies on Russia for most of its natural gas supplies through pipelines such as Nord Stream 1 via the Baltic Sea, TurkStream and Blue Stream via Turkey and the Yamal-Europe pipeline via Belarus and Poland to Germany.

A controversial new pipeline Nord Stream 2, opposed by Ukraine and criticized by the United States, is undergoing a regulatory approval process in Germany, with Russia pressing Europe to speed the process.

Europe relies on Russia for about 35 percent of its natural gas. The 1,242 mile Yamal-Europe pipeline has an annual capacity of 32.9 billion cubic meters, according to Russian gas giant Gazprom, compared to 31 billion cubic meters for TurkStream and 16 billion cubic meters for Blue Stream. The capacity of Nord Stream 1 is 55 billion cubic meters, and Nord Stream 2 will double that.

Von der Leyen accused Belarus of trying to destabilize European democracies in comments to journalists Wednesday after meeting President Biden in Washington. She added that the United States would impose new sanctions in early December.

The migrant crisis on the Belarusian border with Poland came to a head Monday when a large column of migrants, including many women and children, walked to the border to try to cross, only to be stranded in freezing conditions in a forest next to the razor-wire border fence.

Polish officials declared that the migrants would not enter Poland and deployed 12,000 troops along the border. Belarusian border guards prevented people from trying to go back into Belarus, according to local media.

The migrant crisis on Belarusian borders with Europe has been brewing since June, when Lukashenko announced he would stop the policing of his country’s borders in retaliation for tough sanctions announced by the European Union on June 2, the fourth package since Oct. 2.

The E.U. has ratcheted up sanctions pressure over the “fraudulent nature” of a presidential election in August 2020; regime “brutality” against peaceful protests, journalists and activists; and the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in May to arrest independent Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega.

Lukashenko said 1,790 migrants are in a camp on the border with Poland. He ordered officials to deliver firewood to migrants on the border and suggested that children could be taken from their parents and put in a sanatorium, “and somewhere maybe with their mothers.”

“Pregnant women and children. Question number one. We cannot not leave them. Especially children. We would at least take them to get a shower, to be washed and fed,” he said.

The Belarusian leader also claimed, without providing evidence, that attempts were being made to send weapons and explosives from separatist eastern Ukraine to migrants encamped on the border to create a provocation.