Poland to build defensive fortifications on eastern border

Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that Poland has commenced intensive efforts to enhance its border with Belarus and Ukraine.

According to TVP Info, speaking after a meeting with military and border guard officials, Tusk emphasized the multi-dimensional nature of this fortification work, without providing specific details.

Tusk also urged the European Union to contribute financially to these endeavours, underlining that it concerns the security of the EU's external border. Further updates on the progress of these fortification measures will be communicated to the public in due course.

Earlier, Warsaw’s Minister of National Defense, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, said his government was working on plans to strengthen its defences on the borders with Belarus and Russia, in an interview on Poland’s Radio ZET.

When asked by the station’s Bogdan Rymanowski if Poland should start building bunkers, ditches and trenches on the border with Belarus and Russia [Kaliningrad], the minister replied that Warsaw has plans underway already.

Kosiniak-Kamysz said that funds have been allocated and work has begun on “Repairing and strengthening the barrier on the Polish-Belarusian borders. The expenditure for these purposes is considered the highest in [Polish] history.”

A physical barrier was first put in place when Belarus and Russia began to orchestrate a huge wave of illegal migration which Warsaw assessed as being an effort to destabilize Ukraine’s allies, Poland and the European Union. The metal barrier was completed last year and, while it has reduced the number of illegal crossings it has not halted.

Kosiniak-Kamysz went on to say that the increased presence of NATO troops stationed on Polish soil since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has undoubtedly tightened security on the eastern frontier of NATO and the European Union.

He believed, however, that Poland should consider building a line of defensive bunkers, trenches and ditches along its borders with Belarus and Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad, a process that the Baltic states have already begun.