NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) members are planning to build a line of concrete bunkers on the Russian border with Estonia. The construction of what is being dubbed the “Baltic Defense Line” will begin in 2025.
Estonia announced that with the help of Latvia, and Lituania, hundreds of new bunkers will be built. Defense ministers of the three Baltic states met in Riga and approved the construction of what they called “anti-mobility defensive installations” on their eastern borders “to repel possible Russian aggression.”
Notice the use of the word “possible”, and not “likely?” Isn’t anything possible?
The Estonian Defense Ministry has estimated that around 600 bunkers will be necessary for the project, according to the outlet Postimees.
🛡️ The Baltic countries have agreed on the 🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹 #BalticDefenceLine along their eastern border. It's crucial to use time wisely to increase #defence readiness. #NotAnInch pic.twitter.com/PDcSqxtAh7
— MoD Estonia (@MoD_Estonia) January 19, 2024
As part of the “Baltic Defense Line,” Estonia pledged to build hundreds of concrete bunkers, each about 35 square meters in size and capable of housing 10 soldiers. They would be placed along the 294-kilometer border with Russia and linked with a network of support points and supply lines, according to a report by RT.
Kaido Tiitus, an aide at the Defense Ministry, told the state broadcaster ERR that landmines, razor wire, and “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank obstacles will be stored nearby so they can be quickly deployed in case they are needed, Additionally, the bunkers will reportedly need to be able to survive a direct hit from a 152mm artillery shell.
“There is a big question mark over selling land in south-east Estonia, for example, because people there do not want to sell land, the land is important to them, whether it has some kind of traditional value or whether it’s purely farmland that keeps people’s souls alive in that far corner of the country,” Tiitus said.
Tiitus said the fortifications would “not be designed as eyesores or to disrupt everyday life.”
Historically, bunkers and fortification lines such as this one have failed.
Border fortifications have had a controversial history in Europe since France’s Maginot Line, built between the world wars to defend the border with Germany. Nazi armies ended up going around the series of concrete bunkers and gun emplacements, defeating the French in just six weeks.
Albania’s Communist leader Enver Hoxha had more than 750,000 concrete bunkers built around the country between 1967 and 1986, to fortify against possible invasions from both NATO and the Soviet bloc that never materialized. –RT
Leave it to NATO to make terrible decisions that waste money and only lead to the advancement of more war.
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