On Saturday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk will visit the first completed section of the Eastern Shield – a series of fortifications and other systems designed to eventually secure Poland's borders with Russia and Belarus. According to the government information center, this refers to the area near the border with Russia in the north of Vegorzevo in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship.
The Eastern Shield is a program developed by the Ministry of National Defense and the General Staff of the Polish Army, which involves the construction of various types of fortifications, land barriers and military infrastructure on the borders of Poland with Russia and Belarus – a total distance of about 800. kilometers
At the end of October, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that work on the border with Russia had begun.
On Friday, the Government Information Center announced that the prime minister would visit “the first completed section of the Eastern Shield” on Saturday morning. The coordinates of this post indicated a place on the Russian border, near the village of Dabrovka in the north of Vegorzevo province. Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamys and Deputy Minister of National Defense Cesari Tomczyk.MON/
Shield of the East
The Shield project was unveiled in May – the government has repeatedly announced that the first works will begin this year. In the middle of October, the first tests of the shield elements were held in the Orzis training ground (Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship).
The decision to establish the “National Prevention and Defense Program – Eastern Shield”, for which PLN 10 billion has been allocated in 2024-2028, was adopted by the Council of Ministers on June 10 at an external meeting in Białystok.
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According to the statement of the prime minister's office, “the government intends to create a comprehensive defense infrastructure on the eastern side of NATO to counter threats from Belarus and Russia.”
Shield EastPAP
The Eastern Shield program includes, among others: the construction of fortifications and natural terrain barriers in the main border areas. It is also planned to build appropriate intelligence and threat detection systems, advanced bases, logistics nodes, warehouses and deployment of anti-drone systems.
The goal, on the one hand, is to make the border protection of the Polish army as easy as possible, and on the other hand, to make it as difficult as possible for a potential aggressor to enter the country's territory.
The construction of fortifications on the territory of about 800 kilometers on the eastern and northern borders of Poland – it includes the main voivodeships, namely Pomeranian Voivodeship, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Lublin Voivodeship, Podlaskie Voivodeship and Podkarpackie Voivodeship.
Main photo credit: Tomas Waschuk/PAP/EPA
