Poland is allocating significant budget to the "Eastern Shield" program.
Poland's Eastern Shield program needs more funding than initially planned.
According to RIA Novosti on November 10, Polish Deputy Minister of Defense Cezary Tomczyk stated in an interview with Defence 24 that the Eastern Shield project requires more funding than initially anticipated.
Poland is implementing its "Eastern Shield" program on its borders with Russia and Belarus, with 10 billion zloty ($2.5 billion) allocated for the period 2024-2028. According to the office of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the government intends to build a comprehensive defense infrastructure on NATO's eastern flank to counter potential threats from Belarus and Russia.
Polish Deputy Defense Minister Tomczyk said: "The project itself has developed exponentially, step by step, and the initial amount we intended to spend on the Eastern Shield – 10 billion zloty – we now know that it will be much larger than that."
Mr. Tomczyk clarified that Poland spent 1 billion zloty (approximately $270 million) on the Eastern Shield program, which was used to build barriers and storage facilities.
The Deputy Minister of Defence explained that Poland would have to spend in many areas under the Eastern Shield program, including military infrastructure, intelligence, and electronic warfare.
In an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained in detail that Moscow has no intention of attacking NATO countries, as that would be pointless. The Russian leader noted that Western politicians frequently instill fear in the population with "imaginary threats" from Russia, aiming to distract public opinion from domestic issues, but "those with common sense understand that this is just a lie."
In recent years, Russia has noted unprecedented NATO activity along its western border. The alliance is expanding its initiatives and calls this deterrence "Russian aggression." Moscow has repeatedly expressed concern about the alliance's increased military presence in Europe. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Moscow remains open to dialogue with NATO, but on an equal footing, and that the West must abandon its policy of militarizing the continent.
