Poland to Build Electronic Barrier at Border With Russia’s Kaliningrad

According to the Polish Interior Ministry, Mariusz Kaminski, the barrier will be under constant surveillance, equipped with 24-hour monitoring cameras and motion detectors. The barrier will be 210 kilometres long and is expected to be completed in autumn, AtoZSerwisPlus.pl reports.

“We will have full monitoring of the border with Russia. I am sure that this will be the best secured EU border,” Minister Kaminski told a news conference, reported by AP.

This EU Member State has also built a wall at its borders with other neighbouring countries such as Belarus, which is an ally of Russia. This barrier built last year was constructed in order to stop illegal border crossing of migrants, which according to Polish authorities, were organised by the Belarus and Russia authorities to destabilise Poland and the EU as a whole.

The decision to build the wall bordering the Kaliningrad province follows tensions with Russia after the military invasion of Ukraine, with the Polish authorities suspecting that the Kremlin is planning to allow irregular border crossings by Asian and African nationals to reach the EU.

Minister Kaminski points out that Poland’s eastern border, which includes the Russian province of Kaliningrad and Belarus, is prepared for any illegal activity coming from these two countries, considering the crisis situation that they are currently facing. Russia and Belarus have been subject to several restrictions by the EU Member States, mainly introduced due to the war in Ukraine.

This isn’t the first effort that Poland has made to protect its borders with Kalingrad, as in February, the country put up anti-tank barriers on roads to the border crossing with the province, while also a year earlier it had placed a razor-wire there.

“The Polish-Russian border is stable and calm. There has been no illegal crossing of the border. 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,” Anna Michalska, a Border Guard spokesperson, said.

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, has revealed that during the first two-month period of 2023, the Eastern Border experienced an increase of 145 per cent. Although the number of detections is significantly lower than in other routes, 131 detections were recorded January and another 856 in February. This could potentially lead to an increased number of illegal border crossings in the Eastern Border route. The main countries of origin for this route were Ukraine, Iraq and Iran.