Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday that Belarus needs to close its borders with Poland and Lithuania, and strengthen border controls with Ukraine.

Belarus has been in a political crisis following an August 9 presidential election marred by vote-rigging allegations that led to mass demonstrations against Lukashenko. 

Lukashenko says he won re-election fairly and is the victim of a smear campaign by the West.

“We are compelled to withdraw our troops from the streets, have half our army on guard and close our state border with the West, first of all with Lithuania and Poland,” Lukashenko said in a speech at a women’s forum in Minsk. 

“To our greatest regret, we are compelled to strengthen our border with brotherly Ukraine.”

Lukashenko’s announcement comes as the United States and a slew of European countries have stepped up scrutiny of Belarus over alleged irregularities in the country’s August election and repression of protests since.

To this end, Polish deputy foreign minister Pawel Jablonski told Reuters by text message: “We take this as another element of the propaganda campaign, a psychological game which aims to create a sense of an external threat.”

Lithuanian border guard chief Rustamas Liubajevas said the border there was also operating as usual.

Meanwhile, Denmark said on Thursday that seventeen members of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have appointed an independent team of experts to investigate alleged rights violations in the August presidential election.

The mission is expected to publish a report within six to eight weeks.

It will investigate reports of persecution of candidates, journalists and activists as well as excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, illegal detention and torture.

Speaking on a visit to Washington, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he believed the game plan of Lukashenko and his main backer, Russian President Vladimir Putin, was to “try to sit this out”.

Minsk prevented the deployment of OSCE election observers by not inviting them, and has ignored repeated offers by the OSCE chairman, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, to visit.

The OSCE members behind the mission are Denmark, Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Britain, the Czech Republic and the United States.