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Poland and the Baltic states are demanding the construction of an EU defence infrastructure on the borders with Russia and Belarus. They make this clear in a letter.
Warsaw – They are constantly warning about Russia in the Ukraine war: Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Warsaw, Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn have now joined forces to issue the next urgent warning and combined it with a vehement demand.
Danger from Russia and Belarus: Demand from Poland and the Baltic States
The four Baltic Sea states are demanding the “construction of a defense infrastructure system along the EU’s external border with Russia and Belarus.” Belarus, also known here as Belarus, is allied with the Kremlin regime of Moscow ruler Vladimir Putin and has allowed its soldiers to invade Ukraine via its own territory, for example.
They stress an urgent need to protect the European Union (EU) from military and hybrid threats. For context: Poland and the three Baltic countries are all members of the transatlantic defense alliance NATO.
Because of Putin and Lukashenko: Letter from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to the EU
The heads of state and government of the four countries have submitted their demands in a letter to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Charles Michel shortly before the EU summit this Thursday (27 June) and Friday in Brussels, Belgium. The jointly written letter to the EU leadership states: “We need a defence initiative to protect Europeans today and in the years to come.”
Specifically, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia want EU funds for the military and civil border security of their own borders with Russia (Estonia, Latvia), Belarus (Latvia, Lithuania, Poland) and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea (Poland), where Putin’s Baltic Fleet is anchored and stationed. In the letter, the four countries warn not only of the military threat but also of the hybrid threat posed by Putin’s circle and its partners in Minsk under the local autocrat Alexander Lukashenko.
Warning about Vladimir Putin: Idea of an EU defence line to Russia
Hybrid attacks include deliberate disinformation on social media, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure and the smuggling of migrants across borders. Poland has already secured the land sections of its border with Belarus with a 5.5-meter-high fence. Multinational NATO battle groups with 1,200 to 1,600 soldiers each are stationed in all four countries to deter Putin and Lukashenko.
Like that ZDF writes on its news website, EU diplomats estimate the cost of building a possible defense line along the 700-kilometer-long EU border with Russia and Belarus at around 2.5 billion euros. (pm)
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