Poland and the Baltic states have demanded the European Union strengthens its eastern border, warning of a ‘looming threat’ from Russia and Belarus along its 1,500-mile border with the East.
The four EU members are staunch allies of Ukraine, which has been fighting a fully-fledged Russian invasion for more than two years.
They are trenchant critics of Moscow, who they accuse of orchestrating hybrid attacks including ‘intimidation, instrumentalisation of migrants, sabotage, disinformation, foreign information manipulation and interference, (and) cyber-attacks’.
In their letter, the leaders of Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania urged the 27-nation EU to ‘spend more and coordinate on defence initiatives within the EU and with NATO‘ in order to protect the bloc of 450 million people.
‘Building a defence infrastructure system along the EU external border with Russia and Belarus will address the dire and urgent need to secure the EU from military and hybrid threats,’ they said.
A view shows a damaged private house at the site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine June 27, 2024
People clean debris in an apartment in a heavily damaged residential building following a Russian aerial attack, in Selydove, the eastern Donetsk region on June 27, 2024
The call for a jointly funded ground defence line on the eastern border of the European Union comes on top of an earlier initiative by Greece and Poland to create an EU air defence system, modelled on the Israeli Iron Dome, that would coordinate the now separate air defence systems of EU countries.
‘Extraordinary measures need to be employed as the EU’s external border must be protected and defended with military and civilian means,’ the letter of the four countries said.
Poland and the Baltic states – which all have borders with Russia – have already begun fortifying their eastern borders.
Warsaw has earmarked more than 2.3 billion euros ($2.5 billion) for defence measures along the border.
The letter from the four, sent to coincide with the start of a two-day EU summit in Brussels, urged the bloc to support border protection ‘both politically and financially’.
They warned the EU was the target of ‘an unprecedented range of hybrid attacks perpetrated by Russia and its proxies’, including its ally, Belarus.
Poland last month accused Russia of flying thousands of would-be asylum seekers to Moscow and then attempting to send them into the EU across its eastern borders.