SOKOLKA, Poland — Migrants trapped on the border between Poland and Belarus have made hundreds of attempts to breach the frontier, but were repelled by 15,000 Polish soldiers deployed to stop them, according to Polish authorities, CNN reported on Thursday.

The thousands of stranded people are caught at the center of an intensifying geopolitical dispute in which the European Union, the United States and NATO have accused Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko of manufacturing a migrant crisis on the EU's eastern frontier to destabilize the bloc as retribution for sanctions over human rights abuses. His government denies the claims, and instead blames the West for dangerous, sometimes fatal, border crossings and poor treatment of migrants.

The Polish border guard said it had recorded nearly 600 crossing attempts by migrants Tuesday, as well as "three large scale" efforts overnight into Wednesday, with more than 100 migrants in each group trying to breach the fence.

Nine people were detained and 48 people were immediately sent back to Belarus, a border guard press officer told reporters Wednesday. Polish defense minister Mariusz Błaszczak told Polish radio that there was still a substantial group of people on the Belarusian side of the Kuznica border crossing, which authorities closed on Tuesday. A Polish border guard representative previously told CNN that some of the migrants were pushed toward the barriers by Belarusian services.

Błaszczak added that a camp of migrants at Kuznica had also split off into smaller groups, without giving numbers.

Journalists and aid workers have been blocked from traveling to the area by an exclusion zone put into effect after Poland declared a state of emergency recently. Only local residents are permitted to enter the area after showing identification documents.

Several of those who live inside the zone told CNN the increased presence of military police and border guards has been noticeable and that they aren't seeing more migrants than normal. Polish rights activists have said the additional troop deployment appears to have sealed the border near Kuznica as they haven't received any calls from migrants seeking help in the last three days.

Youssef Atallah, a 37-year-old Syrian, arrived in Poland recently after his third attempt at crossing from Belarus. Speaking at a refugee center in Białystok, he recalled how upon arriving at the border, guards caught his group of four and he was beaten, leaving him with facial injuries, a broken nose and bruised ribs.

"They took us to the forbidden area. That was the first try to cross the border to Poland," he told CNN. He said Belarusian officials refused to provide medical aid and repeatedly told them to head to Poland rather than return to Minsk.

He said his experience of the Polish guards and at the center has been starkly different to his treatment by Belarusian officers. "They are very kind with us actually. They took me to the hospital and the crew at the hospital are marvelous. The doctors even gave me clothes."

Polish authorities Wednesday posted two videos from the border that they claim shows Belarus troops firing into the ground and scuffling with people. Poland said the footage shows the tactics employed by the Belarusian services to intimidate migrants in their presence. CNN cannot verify that claim as the video is not clear enough to say what is happening -- but it is yet an example of the war of words which have escalated in the conflict.

Anton Bychkovsky, the press secretary for the Belarusian State Border Committee, which is responsible for the country's external borders, pushed back on the allegation, saying the video does not allow an objective assessment of the full picture. He described it as a likely provocation from the Polish side "with the aim of further escalating the situation and diverting attention from its own actions in relation to refugees, as well as for manipulating public opinion."

Separate footage posted by Polish police to Twitter Wednesday showed rows of officers in riot gear with large protective shields lining parts of the border as helicopters monitor the situation from above. Aerial footage shows tents and smoke billowing from small campfires scattered along the Belarusian side of the barrier close to nearby forests. In other Polish footage shared overnight, soldiers remained in formation closely watching the fencing, occasionally raising torches to check any movement close by, their breath visible in the sub-zero temperatures.

In multiple videos from Polish authorities earlier this week, migrants were seen desperately trying to breach the barriers with shovels, wire cutters and brute force.

Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have seen a surge of people attempting to enter their countries from Belarus in recent months. Many of the migrants -- most of whom are from the Middle East and Asia -- are hoping to travel on from Poland deeper into Europe. Lithuania declared a state of emergency for a month, which went into effect at midnight on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, video from Belarus state media showed children shouting "Germany, Germany" towards the barrier on Tuesday.

In an attempt to deter migrants, the Polish government has been sending text messages to foreign cell phone numbers in the border area which read: "The Polish border is sealed. BLR [Belarus] authorities told you lies. Go back to Minsk!" It ends by warning migrants against taking pills from Belarusian soldiers -- referring to a claim from Polish officials that a migrant was given a tablet before falling ill and dying.

The press officer for the Polish border guard, Katarzyna Zdanowicz, said the situation in the Kuznica area was calm on Wednesday and that migrants had received hot food and drinks from Belarusian servicemen overnight.

Zdanowicz put the number of migrants camped out along the border at around 4,000, citing border guard estimates. She did not rule out the possibility that more people were making their way towards the border area from other parts of Belarus. However, the Belarusian State Border Committee said Tuesday there were around 2,000 migrants at the scene.

Multiple Polish officials have accused Belarus of helping migrants in attempts to cross the border. Deputy Interior Minister Bartosz Grodecki told Polish media on Wednesday that migrants are "constantly transported to the border by the Belarusian services."

Grodecki also alleged that "apart from the Belarusian services, there are probably also representatives of the Russian services" among the crowds of migrants attempting to breach the border.

As the border row intensifies, the EU has said it is likely to impose further sanctions on Belarus.

European Vice President Margaritis Schinas told CNN's Becky Anderson Wednesday he was traveling to visit third countries where flights transporting migrants to Belarus are commencing, to ask "for their cooperation in refraining from these tactics." He said he has also been in contact with third-country airlines involved in bringing migrants to Minsk.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has claimed Moscow was the puppetmaster behind the scenes at the border and that Minsk was operating under the Kremlin's directive.

Belarus, which has denied all the allegations, said Wednesday it was seeking a "joint response" with Russia to "unfriendly actions" from EU states.

According to Belarus state media BelTA, Belarus Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei claimed the West was abusing the human rights theme to exert political pressure. In a press conference following talks between Russian and Belarusian foreign ministers in Moscow, Makei said that "a large-scale complex aggression has been unleashed against Belarus," which cannot remain unanswered.

Russian warplanes performed patrols over Belarus airspace on Wednesday. "These are measures of adequate response to the evolving situation both in the air and on the ground," the Belarus Defense Ministry said on its Telegram channel. Joint flights with the two countries' air forces will be "performed on a regular basis" going forward, it added.

The two long-range Russian Tu-22m3 bombers practiced "issues of interaction with ground control points" with armed forces of both countries, according to the Russian ministry of defense.

Humanitarian groups have previously criticized Poland's nationalist government over its treatment of migrants at the border, where they face grueling conditions as temperatures plummet overnight and a lack of food and medical attention is available. Rights groups have also accused Polish authorities of multiple illegal pushbacks -- a claim border officials have rejected, arguing instead that they are acting in accordance with government regulations.

Border Aid, a volunteer group of Polish medical workers, has not been allowed to treat migrants in the exclusion zone established by Poland's state of emergency, and their repeated applications for entry have been denied, Kaja Filaczynska, a Polish medic working with the group told CNN.