On Saturday, the Ukrainian news outlet European Pravda reported that six countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will set up a "drone wall" to protect their borders.
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"This is a completely new thing -- a 'drone wall' stretching from Norway to Poland, and the goal is to use drones and other technologies to protect our borders," Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite said.
Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Finland, and Norway will join an initiative in which the participating countries will use unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor their border areas.
They will also deploy anti-drone systems to protect their borders from drones, which could be used by "hostile countries" for smuggling and provocations.
Finland's Interior Minister Mari Rantanen stated that the drone wall will cover "1,340 km of the border with Russia and will be improved over time," The Financial Times reported.
On Monday, the Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz also presented the "Eastern Shield" plan, co-financed by the European Union (EU), to protect the border with Belarus and increase the country's military capabilities in the event of war.
"This is the largest operation to strengthen the eastern flank in the history of the Atlantic Alliance" he said and explained that some 2.5 billion euros will be dedicated between 2024 and 2028 to this project.
This plan's three pillars will be to "strengthen the Polish Army, promote international alliances and increase social resilience", in addition to promoting investments in "fortifications, barriers and state-of-the-art airspace surveillance systems."
As part of plans to improve Polish air defense, the minister referred to the recent acquisition of "four aerostats, one satellite, and four drone and anti-drone systems" worth almost 1 billion euros.