Baltic states to build defenses on Russian border, Estonia says

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania approved a plan to build defensive structures on their borders with Russia and Belarus as the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine approaches the two-year mark.

The three nations’ defense ministers signed an agreement in Riga to build “anti-mobility defensive installations in the coming years to deter and, if necessary, defend against military threats,” the Estonian Defense Ministry said in a statement Friday.

“Russia’s war in Ukraine has shown that, in addition to equipment, ammunition, and manpower, physical defensive installations on the border are also needed to defend Estonia from the first meter,” Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said in the statement.

A network of bunkers, support points and distribution lines will be established, the ministry said.

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