Poland Invests $2.5 Billion Into Fortifying Borders With Russia and Belarus

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk attends a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron (not pictured) as part of their meeting at the Élysée Palace in Paris on Feb. 12, 2024. Christophe Petit Tesson/Reuters

Poland is spending about $2.5 billion to step up security and deterrence on its borders with Russia and its ally Belarus, the prime minister said.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on May 18 that Poland will invest 10 billion zlotys (about $2.55 billion) in a program to secure its eastern border. The country is bolstering its defenses against what it says is a rising threat from Russia and Belarus.

Mr. Tusk said work on the Shield-East project, which includes building proper military fortifications, has already begun. Poland is on NATO’s eastern flank and is a member of the European Union (EU). Mr. Tusk stressed that it bears additional responsibility for Europe’s security.

“We are starting a major project to build a secure border, including a system of fortifications as well as landscaping and environmental decisions that will make this border impossible to pass for a potential enemy,” Mr. Tusk said.

The prime minister did not give further details of what kinds of fortifications would be built.

Mr. Tusk also spoke with the European Investment Bank about financing a satellite component of the European Sky Shield Initiative, according to a statement.

The European Sky Shield initiative is a common air defense scheme set up by Germany in 2022 to boost European air defense. Mr. Tusk has compared it to Israel’s Iron Dome system.

The president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group, Nadia Calviño, said after the meeting with Mr. Tusk in Warsaw on May 20 that the bank would grant a loan of 300 million euros to finance “Poland’s first earth observation satellite system, which will support a number of initiatives for dual, civil and security, use.”

The EIB is jointly owned by the EU countries. “The Bank borrows money on capital markets and lends it on favorable terms to projects that support EU objectives,” according to the EU’s website.

Border Wall

Poland’s border with Belarus has been a flashpoint since illegal immigrants started flocking there in 2021, after Minsk, a close Russian ally, opened travel agencies in the Middle East offering a new unofficial route into Europe, a move the EU said was designed to create a crisis.

The Polish Border Guard reported 5,100 attempted illegal crossings from Belarus in the first half of November 2021, compared with 120 in the entire year of 2020.

The previous government, formed by the Law and Justice party currently in opposition, built a steel wall topped with concertina wire on the Poland–Belarus border to halt the massive inflow of illegal immigrants.

The Polish Ministry of Interior and Administration said in a statement that the wall, which is more than 186 kilometers (about 116 miles) long and 5 1/2 meters (about 18 feet) high, was completed in June 2022. The wall has special passages for wild animals similar to wildlife crossings built on highways.

A year later, the wall was complemented by an electronic barrier equipped with “3,000 day/night and thermal cameras and sensors” monitoring the frontier, the Polish Border Guard said in a statement.

Migrants gather on the Belarus–Poland border near the Polish Kuznica border crossing on Nov. 15, 2021. Leonid Shcheglov/BELTA/AFP via Getty Images

The electronic barrier, 206 kilometers (about 128 miles) long, also covers border sections that are not protected by the wall, such as rivers and watercourses, the statement said.

In total, both barriers cover nearly half of the 418-kilometer (260-mile) border with Belarus.

In November 2023, the Polish Border Guard said in a statement that it effectively counteracted illegal migration.

On one day in November, out of 120 people who tried to cross the Belarusian border into Poland illegally, 110 turned back after seeing border patrol, and 10 were apprehended, the statement said.

Since the beginning of 2024, there have been more than 13,000 attempts to cross the Poland–Belarus border illegally, the border guard said in a statement on May 20.

In the first quarter of this year, the border guard detained or exposed 107 illegal immigrants for illegally crossing the Belarusian border, compared with 160 illegal immigrants in the same quarter of the past year, according to the Polish Border Guard’s data.

Only the steel wall was in place during the first quarter of 2023, while the electronic barrier was still being built.

A Polish border marker at the metal border wall in Kuznica, Poland, on June 30, 2022, Omar Marques/Getty Images

Relations With Russia

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, relations between Poland and Belarus have become more tense, with Warsaw ramping up defense spending and accusing Minsk and Moscow of attempts to destabilize Poland.

On May 21, Mr. Tusk said at a news conference that “the pressure on Poland’s eastern border is not a spontaneous migration of people fleeing various countries.”

More than 90 percent of those who cross the Polish border illegally have Russian visas, he said.

“It is the Russian state, not some shady business, that is behind the organization of the recruitment, transport, and subsequent attempts to smuggle thousands of people,” Mr. Tusk said, citing information collected by special services.

Illegal immigrants are recruited in countries such as Somalia, Eritrea, Yemen, and Ethiopia and, with the help of “one of the Arab countries,” are flown to Russia from where they reach Belarus, he claimed.

This is why it is important “to fully secure the border with Belarus,” Mr. Tusk said.

The Russian government didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.