Estonia has dug a 10-kilometer trench line near Russia, adding embankments and anti-tank barriers as wider border defenses take shape.
A 10-kilometer line of trenches has appeared in southeastern Estonia over the past two months along the border with Russia. The work was carried out in Setomaa municipality, near Russia’s Pskov Region, according to the Estonian newspaper Postimees.
The newly dug sections are lined with embankments roughly the height of a person. In some areas, anti-tank obstacles known as «dragon’s teeth» have also been installed. Postimees noted that Estonian authorities do not intend to stop with the existing trenches: another defensive line could be added there if needed.
The newspaper compared the fortifications on Estonia’s border with defensive structures built by Ukrainian forces near Kharkov. According to the article’s authors, the city there is surrounded by three lines of trenches, five belts of barbed wire and three rows of anti-tank barriers.
Military preparations in Estonia have been under discussion for several months. By 2027, the country expects to build about 600 bunkers where Estonian troops would be able to take cover during drone attacks. Earlier, Estonia’s reserve center warned that in the event of war, the country’s food supplies would last only a week.
The Estonian-Russian border stretches for 338 kilometers. Of that, 135 kilometers run over land, 76 along the Narva River and another 127 across Lake Chudskoye. The border between the two countries has still not been legally finalized. Russian and Estonian foreign ministers signed agreements on the border and the delimitation of maritime areas in the Narva and Gulf of Finland in 2014, but the documents must be ratified by both countries’ parliaments before they can enter into force.