Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the start of work on the East Shield, fortifications meant to boost the safety of Poland’s border with Russia and Belarus, on social media yesterday evening.
“The construction of the East Shield has started! First works at the border with Russia,” Tusk wrote on X.
“The East Shield is no longer just a plan, an assumption, a resolution of the Council of Ministers, but after the tests we have conducted (…) I can safely say: construction of the East Shield will begin in the coming days,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz on Oct. 25.
The project has the support of the majority of Poles, with a survey conducted on behalf of Rzeczpospolita showing that 78.2 percent of respondents support strengthening the border by building fortifications and reinforcements. Some 11.7 percent stated the opposite, and 10.2 percent had no opinion on the subject.
Poland’s Council of Ministers adopted a resolution on the establishment of the “National Deterrence and Defense Program – East Shield” in June and allocated PLN 10 billion (€2.3 billion) to its realization.
“The government intends to create a comprehensive defense infrastructure on NATO’s eastern flank to counter threats from Belarus and Russia. For this purpose, a special program worth approximately PLN 10 billion has been established, which will be implemented in the years 2024-2028,” the Chancellery of the Prime Minister wrote in a statement.
