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Poland launches work on EUR 80 mln electronic barrier at Russian border: interior minister

18.04.2023 20:00
Poland has begun building a EUR 80 million electronic barrier at its border with Russia to step up surveillance in the wake of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Polish interior minister said on Tuesday. 
Photo:
Photo:PAP/Artur Reszko

Mariusz Kamiński announced the launch of the project at a news conference in Warsaw, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported. 

The interior minister told reporters: “It will be an extremely advanced barrier, similar to the one we have at the border with Belarus.”

He said that the new electronic barrier would comprise “a system of daytime and night-time cameras and motion sensors” to provide Polish authorities with “full insight into what is happening at the Russian border.”

Kamiński added that the electronic barrier would be ready “in the autumn of 2023.”

He told reporters, as quoted by the Rzeczpospolita newspaper: “The barrier will be prepared brilliantly to detect any illegal activities at the border with our eastern neighbour. I believe it will be one of the most secure borders of the European Union." 

The system is designed to detect all forms of border crime, especially illegal migration and the smuggling of goods, according to the Polish government.    

Construction began on Tuesday in the northern town of Sępopol and the nearby village of Bezledy, close to the border with Russia’s westernmost region of Kaliningrad, Poland’s Border Guard agency said.

The project started with the installation of camera poles as well as power and transmission cables, according to officials. 

199-kilometre electronic fence

Spanning Poland’s entire 199-kilometre border with Russia, the PLN 373 million (EUR 80 million) electronic fence is set to include 2,000 camera poles, 3,000 video cameras and 700 kilometres of power, transmission and detection cables, the Border Guard agency said. 

The system’s control centre will be based in the northeastern town of Kętrzyn, according to officials.

Poland has already built a similar electronic fence, as well as a physical, steel-made barrier along its border with Belarus, following last year’s migration crisis that Poland said had been instigated by Russia as an element of hybrid warfare, news outlets reported. 

Tuesday is day 419 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. 

(pm/gs)

Source: IAR, PAP, rp.pl, gov.pl