Poland Begins Construction of Razor-Wire Barrier Along Border With Russia’s Kaliningrad Amid Security Concerns

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and defense minister Mariusz Blaszczak meet with service members near the frontier, as hundreds of migrants gather on the Belarusian side of the border with Poland in an attempt to cross it, near Kuznica in Bialostocka, Poland, on Nov. 9, 2021. Polish Prime Minister's Office/Handout via Reuters

Poland has begun constructing a razor-wire fence on its border with Russia’s Kaliningrad, where Moscow has a significant military presence, officials said on Nov. 2.

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told reporters at a news conference that he has ordered the temporary barrier to be built immediately to ensure that Poland is secure. The barrier will measure 2.5 meters (eight feet) high and three meters (10 feet) deep along the 210-kilometer (130-mile) border.

Błaszczak cited security concerns as the reason behind the construction at the border, which comes amid ongoing tensions with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Warsaw is also concerned that the Kremlin plans to facilitate illegal border crossings by Asian and African immigrants in an effort to destabilize Europe, concerns prompted by a recent decision by Russia’s aviation authority to launch flights from the Middle East and North Africa to Kaliningrad.

The border area, which is patrolled by border guards, has no physical barrier. Polish soldiers specializing in demining began carrying out the initial prep work on Nov. 2.

The barrier is due to be completed by the end of 2023, Błaszczak said.

He referenced the 2021 crisis during which thousands of African and Middle Eastern illegal aliens attempted to cross the border of Belarus, a close ally of Russia, into Poland. Many of those border crossers died, and Poland subsequently erected a steel wall on the Belarus border to stem the flow of illegal immigrants. That border was completed in June.

At the time, Polish and other European Union leaders accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s government of encouraging immigrants from the Middle East to travel to Minsk and make their way into Europe.

Belarus officials denied those claims.

A member of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service stands near the border with Belarus and Poland in the Volyn region of Ukraine on Nov. 16, 2021. Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Poland–Russia Border ‘Stable and Calm’

Human rights groups then accused Poland of double standards after the nation welcomed an influx of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion while simultaneously moving to prevent Middle Eastern and North African migrants from entering via the Belarus border.

“If you give a lift to a refugee at the Ukrainian border, you are a hero. If you do it at the Belarus border, you are a smuggler and could end up in jail for eight years,” said Natalia Gebert, founder and CEO of Dom Otwarty, or Open House, a Polish nongovernmental organization that helps refugees, according to a June report by The Associated Press.

Kaliningrad is a semi-exclave—a portion of a country that’s geographically separated from the main part by a surrounding foreign territory—that lies on the Baltic Sea and is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania and separated from Belarus by a border corridor.

Despite there being no barrier along the border, a spokesperson for the Polish Border Guard told Reuters that there were no illegal entries from Kaliningrad into Poland in October.

“The Polish–Russian border is stable and calm. There has been no illegal crossing of the border,“ Polish border spokesperson Anna Michalska said. ”We are not only there in times of peace. We are prepared for various crisis situations, and after what happened on the Polish–Belarusian border, we are even more prepared for everything, for all of the darkest scenarios.”

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.