JUST IN: Poland to build wall on border with Russia

Poland has concluded plans to construct a temporary wall along its border of Russia’s Kaliningrad amid fears that it has turned into a channel for illegal migration.

Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said the construction of the fence which would be 2.5-meter (8-foot) high and 3-meter deep was due to begin on Wednesday.

According to DW on Thursday, Poland recently completed a similar barrier along its border with Belarus after a standoff over migrants and the proposed one with Russia is slated to be completed by the end of 2023.

Why is Poland building a fence?

As tensions heighten over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Polish authorities have suspected that Moscow plans to facilitate illegal border crossings by Asian and African migrants into the European Union through Kaliningrad.

Blaszczak said he ordered the measure to strengthen Poland’s security “by sealing this border” after a recent decision by Russia’s aviation authority to launch flights from the Middle East and North Africa to Kaliningrad.

The report said a map pointing to the location of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, bordering Lithuania and Poland.

According to the Polish Border Guard, there were no illegal entries from Kaliningrad into Poland in October.

“The Polish-Russian border is stable and calm. There has been no illegal crossing of the border,” a Border Guard spokesperson, Anna Michalska said.

“We are not only there in times of peace. We are prepared for various crisis situations and after what happened on the Polish-Belarusian border we are even more prepared for everything, for all of the darkest scenarios,” she added.