Two Russian paratroopers fell to their deaths after Moscow launched joint military drills with Belarus just miles from the border with Europe on Friday.

The exercises were intended to show Vladimir Putin’s support for Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian dictator, amid a growing migrant crisis on the Polish border.

The Russian ministry of defence announced the accidental deaths hours after releasing a slickly produced video that showed its troops leaping from planes and running across open fields before launching rounds of machine-gun fire in the woods.

Russia’s intervention marks an escalation in the crisis that has seen several thousand Syrians, Iraqis, Yemenis and others camping at the Belarusian border since the start of the week, in the hope of crossing into Poland. 

Mr Lukashenko has promised to “flood” the European Union with migrants in return for sanctions that were imposed on his regime following a brutal crackdown on political dissent. 

Warsaw has accused Mr Putin, Mr Lukashenko’s sole remaining major backer, of pulling the strings from behind the scenes. 

Poland has meanwhile moved 15,000 troops to the frontier, put up a fence topped with barbed wire, and approved the construction of a wall.