Defence officials in Poland have presented a plan to strengthen security on the country's border with Belarus.
The plan involves beefing up anti-drone surveillance and on-ground military defence through a system of fortifications and barriers along about 700 kilometres of its eastern border with the Russian ally.
Poland, which supports Ukraine against Moscow's full-scale invasion, is being targeted by hostile actions from Russia and Belarus, according to Warsaw. They include cyberattacks, attempted arson and pushing migrants illegally across the border, which officials describe as intended to destabilise the European Union.
The Polish government is also preparing for possible military attack while stressing the primary role of deterrence.
On Saturday, Poland’s airforce scrambled jets to protect the country's airspace from Russian missiles targeting western Ukraine.
Poland's Shield East
Prime minister Donald Tusk has announced more than €2.3 billion investment in strengthening the eastern border with a system known as Shield East, set to be completed in 2028. Work on it has started, officials said.
“The goal of the shield is to protect the territory of Poland, hamper the mobility of our adversary's troops while making such mobility easier for our own troops and to protect civilians,” defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said at a news conference.
He stressed Poland had started the biggest programme to strengthen NATO's eastern flank since the end of World War II in 1945.
Officials said Shield East will form part of a regional defence infrastructure built jointly with the Baltic states — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — also on NATO's eastern flank.
Funding will come from government, as Poland spends over 4% of its GDP on defence, but help will also be sought from the EU because the system will also strengthen the eastern border of the 27-member bloc, they said.
Some observers noted that the much-publicised presentation came two weeks ahead of elections to the European Parliament, and could be partly seen as a part of a campaign to boost support for the government that took office in December.
Poland’s previous right-wing government built a €368 million wall on the border with Belarus to halt a massive inflow of migrants that were pushed from that direction in 2021.
The current pro-EU government says that the wall also needs to be strengthened.
The three Baltic states were once part of the Soviet Union, while Poland was a satellite state before the 1990s. Moscow still regards the area as within its sphere of interest.
