Warsaw, Poland — Poland is strengthening the metal barrier along its border with Belarus to deter illegal migration and plans to also reinforce its border with Russia, its defense minister said Thursday.
Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said the increased presence of Polish and allied military forces in regions close to the border is also helping to reinforce the eastern border of NATO and the European Union. That presence has increased since Russia’s aggression in Ukraine in 2022.
“We are repairing the barrier on the Polish-Belarusian border, we are strengthening this barrier, there are military camps… that support the Border Guard (in the region) and spending on these purposes is the highest in (Poland). ) history,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said on private radio Zet.
He spoke in favor of Poland building a line of bunkers, trenches and defensive ditches along that border and that of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, measures that the Baltic states have already taken.
Poland says a massive wave of illegal migration from Belarus, especially in 2022, was orchestrated by that country and Russia to destabilize Poland, an ally of Ukraine, and the entire EU. It was largely slowed by the metal barrier Poland completed last year, but some illegal crossings continue.
The minister’s comments also suggested the barrier is seen as a broader defense measure during Russia’s war with Ukraine, which borders Poland.