Belarus’ strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko on November 11 vowed to respond to any new sanctions imposed over the migrant crisis on the country’s border with Poland, including by potentially cutting off the transit of natural gas to Europe.

“If they impose additional sanctions on us … we must respond,” Lukashenko said in comments to officials released by the presidency.

“We are warming Europe, and they are threatening us,” he said, pointing out that Russia’s Yamal-Europe gas pipeline transits through Belarus to Poland. “And what if we halt natural gas supplies?”

Pressure is building to address the plight of hundreds of migrants, mainly Kurds from the Middle East, who are stuck at the Belarus-Poland border in freezing weather. The UN Security Council was to meet later on November 11 for emergency talks on the crisis.

The West accuses Lukashenko of luring the migrants to Belarus to send them across the border, in revenge for sanctions imposed last year after a heavy crackdown on the opposition.

EU officials say they expect to approve new sanctions over the migrant crisis next week.

Belarusian foreign minister Vladimir Makei said Minsk wanted the crisis “resolved as quickly as possible” and was ready to talk to the EU, but the bloc was refusing dialogue.

Poland has deployed 15,000 troops along the border, put up a fence topped with barbed wire and approved construction of a wall on the frontier with Belarus.

Warsaw accuses Minsk of using intimidation to force migrants to breach the frontier and refusing to allow them to leave border areas.