Finland has begun construction of a barrier on its border with Russia. The Finnish border guards said it will be about 200 kilometers long. The construction is part of a defense against possible Russian use of migrants for political purposes.

The first earthworks have already begun. The Finnish border guard announced that the first 3-kilometer section of the fence in the area of the Imatra border crossing in the southeastern part of the country is to be completed by the end of June.

The object will be more than three meters high and topped with barbed wire. Some sections are to be equipped with night monitoring systems.

Construction of another 70 kilometers of the barrier in the southeastern part of the country is scheduled to continue until 2025. Finland plans to build about 200 kilometers of the fence on its roughly 1,300-kilometer-long border with Russia. The estimated cost of the project is EUR 380 mln.

Following Poland’s example

Poland announced back in November 2022 that it would build such a barrier on its border with Russia’s Kaliningrad region.

Mariusz Błaszczak, Poland’s defense minister, announced then that the fence “will consist of three lines of concertina used by militaries worldwide.”

He also specified that the barrier would look exactly the same as the one on the Polish-Belarusian border with its height reaching 2.5 meters and width of 3 meters.