According to the Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, the situation on the borders of Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia is serious. “The Estonian border is currently not directly under threat, however, considering what is happening in nearby countries, we must also be prepared to combat the threat. Estonia has been consistently reinforcing its external border and installation of the new barrier is part of the plan,” said Kallas. “Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia have acted with determination on their external borders and Estonia will be helping our neighbours in dealing with the situation. Poland has currently indicated that they primarily need solidarity and political support. We are in close communication with Poland and are prepared to support them in every way. We support adoption of additional European Union sanctions against those natural and legal persons who support the activity of the Belarus regime in executing the hybrid attack,” the prime minister added.
Kristian Jaani, Minister of the Interior, added that addition of the temporary barriers on the border is, in principle, acceleration of the construction of the border in the current situation. “Our border is well-guarded and there is currently no risk of migration in our direction on the border. In order to cope well with any potential crisis situations, however, those situations must be prepared for before they arise. Thus, the Police and Border Guard Board has the capability and preparedness required for supporting the construction of the border fence by erecting temporary barriers in cooperation with the Defence Forces. We are planning to erect the temporary barriers in places with the highest number of unlawful border crossings or border crossing attempts based on the current experience,” noted Jaani. “The border is currently being guarded with the aid of technical monitoring equipment and patrolling. In total, we would need infrastructure for 115 kilometres. The construction of 63 kilometres is covered with construction contracts, of which 25 kilometres are equipped with a barrier fence. We have accelerated our next steps in building the border infrastructure.”
The Minister of Defence Kalle Laanet confirmed that we are also in contact with our allies on a daily basis in order to coordinate the activity in the event of escalation of the situation. “We have been carefully monitoring the situation from the beginning of the hybrid attack and contributed to solving the situation by sending barrier wire, unmanned aircraft crews, as well as a military police team to Lithuania on the latest occasion,” said Laanet.