Just days after Finland joined NATO, the military unit visited reporters at the construction site of the first three-kilometer pilot unit on the border near Imatra in the country’s southeast.
A total of 200 kilometers of barbed wire fences, three meters high and bordering a road, will be erected with a projected budget of 380 million euros.
According to the still incomplete route presented on Friday, most (70%) will be along the southeastern border, the thickest part of the border with Russia.
But other fences lead north, along a long, mostly uninhabited border to Lapland and the Norwegian border in the Arctic.
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“The fence will have several dozen sections. A typical example would be border crossings and their surroundings, roads that cross the border, but also areas that are easily accessible to people in traffic,” explained General of the Force Jari Tolpanan. A press conference.
At the pilot site, currently located six kilometers from Imatra, backhoe loaders have been busily removed and trees cut, but the fence is still not in place.
The construction site started at the end of February and the last phase of fencing should be completed in 2026.
About 70 kilometers will be completed by 2025.
Finland’s borders are currently protected mainly by light wooden barriers, mainly designed to prevent the movement of livestock.
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