Poland finishes building a border barrier with Belarus

Border guards patrol the physical barriers built on the border between Poland and Belarus on June 30, 2022 in Nowodziel, Poland. The barrier was built in the first two quarters of 2022. An electronic barrier monitoring system will now be built. The Polish government decided to build a 186 kilometers long and 5.5 meter high steel barrier with barbed wire on the Polish - Belarus border, which is as well the border of the European Union and NATO. The decision was made after thousands of migrants, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan tried to cross into Poland from Belarus. The government of Belarus was accused of orchestrating the migration, with help from Russia. The pressure on the Polish border is today seen as the first step of a larger plan of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, to destabilise the European Union.