The Daily Populous Saturday January 4th, 2025 night edition
Authored by lemonde.fr and submitted by LeMonde_en

An armored vehicle next to concrete anti-tank barriers, the first completed section of the "Eastern Shield" fortifications on the Polish-Russian border near Dabrowka, northern Poland, November 30, 2024. WOJTEK RADWANSKI / AFP

In his office at the Ministry of Defense, in the heart of Warsaw, Polish Secretary of State Cezary Tomczyk looked relaxed, with a calmness that contrasts with the portfolio he's in charge of. This experienced 40-year-old, a member of the parliamentary defense committee since 2007, has been entrusted by Prime Minister Donald Tusk (Civic Coalition, center-right), with the supervision of the building of the "East Shield," a vast reinforcement of defense infrastructures along the borders with Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, the construction of which was launched with great fanfare in November 2024.

In front of him, two large maps adorned his office, whose sensitive legends he didn't hesitate to explain. "You see these dots, these are the bridges we can blow up, in the event of an invasion," he said. "The shield is divided into three zones: 'Not go,' where the enemy cannot pass because of natural barriers; 'Go,' where he can pass but with difficulty, and 'Must go,' where he is obliged to pass." The infrastructure is seen as a bulwark designed to protect the whole of Europe, not just Poland.

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Miao_Yin8964 on January 3rd, 2025 at 17:33 UTC »

Belarus has some explaining to do for allowing Russia to amass troops along the border.

Poland is proving how based it is, once again.

LeMonde_en on January 3rd, 2025 at 16:56 UTC »

The country has embarked on a massive reinforcement of its defense infrastructure on the borders with Russia and Belarus. It aims to build Europe's leading army. But the government now in power must face up to the difficult legacy of its predecessors.

In his office at the Ministry of Defense, in the heart of Warsaw, Polish Secretary of State Cezary Tomczyk looked relaxed, with a calmness that contrasts with the portfolio he's in charge of. This experienced 40-year-old, a member of the parliamentary defense committee since 2007, has been entrusted by Prime Minister Donald Tusk (Civic Coalition, center-right), with the supervision of the building of the "East Shield," a vast reinforcement of defense infrastructures along the borders with Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, the construction of which was launched with great fanfare in November 2024.

In front of him, two large maps adorned his office, whose sensitive legends he didn't hesitate to explain. "You see these dots, these are the bridges we can blow up, in the event of an invasion," he said. "The shield is divided into three zones: 'Not go,' where the enemy cannot pass because of natural barriers; 'Go,' where he can pass but with difficulty, and 'Must go,' where he is obliged to pass." The infrastructure is seen as a bulwark designed to protect the whole of Europe, not just Poland.

The 700-kilometer-long plan should be operational by 2028, at a cost of 10 billion zlotys (€2.3 billion). The border areas it runs along are largely wild, bordered by thick forests, swamps and hundreds of lakes. They do, however, have their vulnerable corridors, such as the "Brest Gate," named after the Belarusian city, an 80-kilometer-wide strip of land that has been used many times in the course of history for east-west troop movements. Warsaw is only 160 kilometers away.

As Tomczyk explains, the shield rests on three pillars. Firstly, heavy infrastructure: trenches, bunkers, anti-tank ditches, steel and concrete hedgehogs, as well as strips of land to be mined. Then comes the light infrastructure: road networks between strategic points, hospitals and storage sites, communications networks, over an area that can penetrate up to 50 kilometers into the interior of the country.

Read the full article here: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/01/02/poland-makes-east-shield-core-of-its-military-power-ambitions_6736637_4.html