The Estonian Defense Ministry said on Friday that the countries' ministers signed an agreement in Riga according to which “Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania want to build defense facilities to restrict mobility in the coming years.”
The aim is to “deter and, if necessary, defend against military threats”. The “elements” on the ground would be “positioned on the landscape taking into account the results of the analysis of enemy intentions, the environment and the defense plan,” he said.
Bunkers and supply lines
No details were officially announced Friday about the planned facilities. According to media reports, construction of the facilities is scheduled to begin in 2025. Initially, around 55 million euros were allocated for this. According to the notice, a system of bunkers and supply lines will be created. In times of peace, neither barbed wire, nor mines, nor concrete blocks should be placed to stop tanks at the border. They would be on standby nearby.
The Baltic States, which only became independent with the collapse of the Soviet Union and were able to emancipate themselves from Moscow's power, want to protect themselves against possible Russian actions – in addition to joining the EU and NATO.
“Necessary physical defenses”
“Russia's war in Ukraine has shown that in addition to equipment, ammunition and personnel, physical defense facilities are also needed,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said, according to his ministry's statement.
His Latvian counterpart, Andris Spruds, said it shares a border with Russia. The Baltic States have consistently supported Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.
more on the subject
Finland accuses the Kremlin of “hybrid attacks”.
Finland extends border closures
Finland recently extended the closure of its border crossings with Russia. Helsinki accuses Moscow of “hybrid attacks”. What this means is that the neighboring state is deliberately smuggling migrants to the Finnish border in order to destabilize Finland. More recently, a group of Iranian men were arrested at the border a few days ago.
Since August, almost 1,000 asylum seekers have arrived at the Finnish border from Russia, many of them from Kenya, Morocco, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Finland had therefore already closed some border crossings in November. The country later closed its entire eastern border with Russia.
However, the country of 5.5 million people is currently building a 200-kilometer-long fence along part of the more than 1,300-kilometer-long shared border. Completion is scheduled for 2026.
Following Poland's example
A conflict broke out between Belarus and Poland in the summer of 2021 after more and more migrants tried to cross the green border into the EU. Warsaw accused Minsk of deliberately dragging people to the border and thus putting pressure on Poland and the EU as a whole, which supported the democratic movement in Belarus. Poland later erected a fence in several sections.