(Dan Tri) – Poland will spend 2.5 billion USD to strengthen its eastern border, strengthening defense against the supposedly growing threat from Russia and Belarus.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (left) visited guards at the border with Belarus on May 11 (Photo: EPA).
`We have decided to invest 10 billion zloty ($2.5 billion) in our security and above all in ensuring the security of our eastern borders,` Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a press conference.
`We are embarking on a major project to build a secure border, including a system of fortifications, as well as making landscape and environmental decisions to make this border impervious to potential adversaries.`
The Polish government previously built a fence on the Poland-Belarus border more than 180km long and 5.5m high to prevent illegal migration.
Poland’s border with Belarus has become a flashpoint since migrants began flocking to the country in 2021, after Minsk, a close ally of Russia, opened travel agencies in the Middle East providing
Since Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine in 2022, relations have become even more tense, with Warsaw increasing defense spending and accusing Minsk and Moscow of trying to destabilize Poland
Prime Minister Tusk announced plans to strengthen the eastern border in early May, but did not give details.
The European Sky Shield initiative is a joint air defense plan established by Germany in 2022 to strengthen the air defense of the European region.
In an interview with German newspaper Bild published in April, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said Poland would `not be surprised` if Russia attacked the country, but that Moscow would ultimately lose.
`Russia has attacked Poland many times in our 500 years of history. But in this scenario, Russia will lose, because we, the West, are much stronger than Russia,` Mr. Sikorski said.
When asked whether NATO members could be attacked by Russia in the future, Foreign Minister Sikorski said German politicians `seem to admit Russia will only be ready to act in four or five years and until
Polish President Andrzej Duda said the country is ready to receive US nuclear weapons in the context of escalating hostilities between Russia and Ukraine.
Vice Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said on May 18 that Russia may have to expand the security buffer zone in Ukraine to the Polish border, even inside Polish territory.
However, the scenario of the security buffer zone expanding to the Polish border is unlikely because that move would likely trigger Article 5 of the NATO Charter on collective defense.
