{"id":369033,"date":"2025-08-24T05:37:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T05:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/369033\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T05:37:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T05:37:22","slug":"why-a-new-iron-curtain-is-being-built-across-europe-this-time-its-to-keep-russia-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/369033\/","title":{"rendered":"Why a new \u2018iron curtain\u2019 is being built across Europe. This time it\u2019s to keep Russia out"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1946, Winston Churchill announced an \u201ciron curtain\u201d<\/a> had descended across Europe \u201cfrom Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic\u201d. This time it is the west that is building the barriers. <\/p>\n

Every European nation bordering Russia<\/a> and its ally Belarus is accelerating plans to construct hundreds of miles of fortified border to defend against possible Russian aggression.<\/p>\n

The reasons are clear. The post-cold war European security framework \u2013 which relied on strengthening international institutions and trade, Nato expansion and US military guarantees \u2013 is being eroded. <\/p>\n

Finland<\/p>\n

Sharing an 832-mile border with Russia, Finland proposed building a wall in 2023 that would cover about 15% of its border, costing over US$400 million (\u00a3297 million) and with hopes that it will be completed by 2026. <\/p>\n

Motivated in part by Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but also due to a rise of Russians fleeing to Finland to escape conscription. Finland\u2019s government passed a law in July 2023<\/a> to build stronger and taller fences, as the previous wooden fences were designed only to prevent livestock from crossing. Eight border posts<\/a> were erected (including north of the Arctic Circle) alongside greater obstacles in the southernmost strip of the country. <\/p>\n

There are even defences being erected in remote areas of north-eastern Finland<\/a>, where in the not-too-distant past, a steady flow<\/a> of Russian and Finns would regularly come and go across the border to buy groceries.<\/p>\n

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland<\/p>\n

And Finland is not the first. In August 2015<\/a>, Estonia announced that it would build a fence along its eastern border with Russia, after Moscow\u2019s 2014 annexation of Crimea. <\/p>\n

In 2024, the Baltic states and Poland proposed to further fortify their borders with a defensive wall. It would cover 434 miles, costing over \u00a32 billion<\/a>. Plans and construction are now speeding up as leaders of the Baltic states<\/a> worry that the prospects of a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia could mean Moscow redirects its military towards them.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n

Latvia will invest about US$350 million<\/a> over the next few years to reinforce its 240-mile border with Russia, while Lithuania is planning a 30-mile<\/a> defence line against a possible Russian invasion. Poland has started building a permanent fence on its border with Belarus<\/a> as part of its defence against Moscow\u2019s potential allies.<\/p>\n

These walls will also be accompanied by other physical barriers<\/a> such as antitank ditches, 15-tonne concrete dragon\u2019s teeth (which can stop Russian tanks advancing), massive concrete blocks and pyramids, roadblocks, massive metal gates, mined fields and blocked bridgeheads. <\/p>\n

Lithuania is planning up to 30 miles of reclamation ditches, bridges prepared for bombing and trees designated to fall on roads when necessary<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Baltic states are also building more than 1,000 bunkers<\/a>, ammunition depots and supply shelters to further protect the 600 miles of territory that borders Russia. Bunkers<\/a> are expected to be about 377 square feet, capable of housing up to ten soldiers and being able to withstand artillery strikes from Russia.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In 1946, Winston Churchill made a speech about the Soviet building an \u2018iron curtain\u2019 across Europe.<\/p>\n

The Baltic nations plus Finland and Poland also all announced in 2025 that they would withdraw from the 1997 international treaty<\/a> banning antipersonnel landmines, while Lithuania revoked its pledge to a cluster bomb treaty. Poland announced in June 2025 that it had added minefields to its \u201cEast Shield\u201d<\/a> border plans.<\/p>\n

Building a drone wall<\/p>\n

These border defences will be using the latest technology and early warning systems and artillery units. Lithuania<\/a> Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Finland and Norway met in Riga in 2024 to begin plans to build a 1,850-mile \u201cdrone wall\u201d<\/a> to protect their borders. <\/p>\n

This drone wall will have a sensor network, consisting of radars and electronic warfare tools<\/a> to identify and destroy Russian drones. Within seconds of detecting a target crossing the border, there would be a system<\/a> of close reconnaissance of drones. <\/p>\n

This project will require a great deal of cooperation among participating states. Estonian companies are already designing drones that can both detect and neutralise threats along complex terrain in lakes, swamps and forests<\/a> that blanket Russia\u2019s border with the Baltic countries. <\/p>\n

Historical parallels<\/p>\n

Both cooperation from all countries that border Russia in Europe and an understanding of the terrain is critical to avoid the failures of the Maginot Line<\/a>, part of a set of defensive barriers that France built along its borders in the 1930s, and which failed to prevent a German invasion<\/a> in the second world war. In that case, it was assumed that the Germans could not pass through the Ardennes forest<\/a> in Belgium. <\/p>\n

While the Maginot Line fortifications did cause the Germans to rethink their plan of attack, Belgium<\/a> was left vulnerable. Today, European nations are aware that they cannot fully prevent a Russian attack, but they can, possibly, shape<\/a> the nature of a Russian invasion. The goal of these barriers is both deterrence and to try to control the location of any invasion. <\/p>\n

If a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia is announced, the leaders of the Baltic nations fear the Kremlin could redeploy troops<\/a> to their borders. <\/p>\n

Countries neighbouring Russia are trying to be as prepared as possible for whatever Vladimir Putin might do next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1946, Winston Churchill announced an \u201ciron curtain\u201d had descended across Europe \u201cfrom Stettin in the Baltic, to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187],"class_list":{"0":"post-369033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115082129934974405","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}