1667465067 Poland will build a wall on its border with the

Poland will build a wall on its border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad

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ZERDZINY, POLAND – OCTOBER 28: A Russian side warning sign stands next to a Lithuanian border fence near the exact point where the borders of Poland, Lithuania and Russia's semi-exclave of Kaliningrad meet, as seen on October 28, 2022 near Kaliningrad Zerdziny, Poland. The monument marks the western tip of the strategically important Suwalki Gap, an approximately 70 km long strip of land along the Lithuanian-Polish border between Kaliningrad and pro-Russian Belarus. Should military conflict ever erupt, Russian control of the Suwalki Gap would cut off the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from the rest of the European Union. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Sean Gallup/Getty Images ZERDZINY, POLAND – OCTOBER 28: A warning sign stands on the Russian side next to a Lithuanian border fence near the exact point where the borders of Poland, Lithuania and the Russian semi-exclave of Kaliningrad meet, as in October was seen February 28, 2022 near Zerdziny, Poland. The monument marks the western tip of the strategically important Suwalki Gap, an approximately 70 km long strip of land along the Lithuanian-Polish border between Kaliningrad and pro-Russian Belarus. Should military conflict ever erupt, Russian control of the Suwalki Gap would cut off the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from the rest of the European Union. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

(Photo: border area between Poland, Lithuania and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad)

INTERNATIONAL – Poland’s defense minister on Wednesday, November 2, announced the construction of a barrier along the border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad to prevent the illegal crossing of migrants, which Warsaw says is being orchestrated by Russia.

Poland has already erected a physical and electronic barrier along its border with Belarus, an ally of Russia, and has accused the Belarusian regime of letting in migrants hoping to reach the European Union, which Minsk denies.

After the launch of flights connecting the Middle East and North Africa with Kaliningrad, “I decided to act to increase security at the border with the Kaliningrad enclave. We’re starting to build a temporary barrier there,” Mariusz Blaszczak told reporters.

Against a “hybrid war”

According to him, the barrier will consist of three parallel barbed wire fences 2.5 meters high and 3 meters wide, as well as electronic devices. Work on this 210-kilometer land border starts “today,” he stressed.

In September 2021, to prevent a migration crisis that Poland sees as an anti-Poland “hybrid war” between Russia and Belarus, Warsaw imposed a zone about three kilometers wide and more than 400 kilometers long on its border with Belarus.

This area has been banned to all non-residents, including members of NGOs helping migrants and journalists. Since this measure was lifted last July, it is still forbidden to get within 200 meters of this border, which has since been protected by a metal barrier five meters high, while it is being equipped with cameras and motion detectors. .

Despite the common practice of push-backs employed by Poland, about a hundred attempts to cross the Polish-Belarusian border illegally, mostly by migrants from the Middle East, are reported daily by border guards and NGOs operating in the square.

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