Estonia begins building bunkers along its border with Russia
Photo: Estonia has begun building bunkers on the border with Russia (Estonian Defense Investment Center)
Estonia has begun building the first concrete bunkers along its southeastern border with Russia as part of the Baltic Defense Line, according to Defense News.
According to Krismaar Rozin, spokesperson for the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments, the first phase предусматривает the installation of 28 bunkers. Seven of them have already been delivered and are being prepared for installation near the municipality of Setomaa.
The overall network is expected to include 600 fortification structures that will become part of a multilayered defense system on NATO’s eastern flank.
"We are building it in peacetime, which means that we have to follow the peacetime law", Rozin noted.
The bunkers, each covering about 35 square meters, are designed to withstand strikes from 152 mm artillery shells. In the event of an escalation along the border, they will be supplemented with barbed wire and "dragon’s teeth," which are already stored in warehouses.
The project was launched with delays due to procurement issues. Initial tenders failed because of inflated prices, as companies were unable to accurately assess costs without access to coordinates that were kept classified for security reasons.
At present, the project is being implemented under a scaled-down scenario to obtain real data before a full-scale rollout. An additional 572 bunkers are expected to be put out to a new tender by the end of the year.
Construction is accompanied by significant coordination challenges, as approvals are required from the armed forces, police, border guards, local councils, and private landowners. At the same time, Estonia is already ahead of Latvia and Lithuania, which are also implementing their parts of the project independently.
It should be recalled that last year it was reported that Estonia would begin building a defense line along its border with Russia in 2025. In particular, it plans to construct 600 bunkers in border areas with the aggressor country.
In addition, over the next two years, nearly a 40-kilometer anti-tank ditch will be built along Estonia’s southeastern border. Estonia’s opposition party has also initiated a draft law proposing to close the border with Russia.
