The defense ministers of the three Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia met in Riga, Latvia Jan. 19, to approve the construction of fortified “anti-mobility defensive installations, effectively a wall,” on the borders with Russia and Belarus, to allegedly stop a Russian invasion. The Estonian government has pledged to build 600 bunkers along Russia’s borders. The pro-Ukrainian Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) stated in a Feb 8 article, that once this plan is implemented, “they [the Baltic states] will become an important element of NATO’s forward defense.”
The defense ministers also agreed to develop missile-artillery cooperation.
Hanno Pevkur, Estonia’s Minister of Defense told ERR, Estonia’s state-financed newsite on Jan. 19, the purpose for the Jan. 19 defense ministers gathering: “Russia’s war in Ukraine has shown that, in addition to equipment, ammunition, and manpower, physical defensive installations on the border are also needed to defend Estonia from the first meter.”
Starting 2025, Estonia has a plan, drawn up at the NATO summit in Spain in the summer of 2023, to construct a network of 600 fortified bunkers that will start in Narva in Estonia’s northeast, running southwards along the Russian border to Noru in Estonia’s southeast. Estonia plans to spend 64 million euro ($69 million). Each bunker which will have a 40 cm thick concrete ceiling. Each bunker, lowered into the ground and covered with dirt, will house a platoon of ten men. The bunkers will be facing straight at Russia. “The structures will be modular and their fittings can be replaced to turn them into command centers of warehouses,” explained Major Taavi Moore, commander of the EDF Engineer Battalion.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said that Lithuania will construct 18 counter-mobility traps.
