German army sends combat engineers to help fortify Poland's border

German army combat engineers are helping Poland fortify its border with Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, the Bundeswehr said on Wednesday, adding that the troops from a reinforced armoured engineer platoon had already arrived in early July. 

The soldiers are working alongside the Polish army to dig anti-tank ditches, erect tank barriers and build field fortifications and fighting positions.

"The aim of this initiative is to delay an invasion by those forces in the event of a military conflict, thereby increasing the responsiveness of Polish troops and NATO," the Bundeswehr, as Germany's armed forces are formally known, said in a statement.

Poland, an EU and NATO member and one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion, considers itself threatened by Moscow and is investing billions in what it calls the "Eastern Shield" - a fortified defensive line along parts of its eastern border.

By the end of this year, the Polish Defence Ministry plans to secure around 250 kilometres of the eastern and northern border, with concrete fortifications, electronic surveillance systems and depots for engineer equipment.

"The deployment of the Bundeswehr contingent is the first practical international assistance we have received for this project," Colonel Marek Pietrzak, spokesman for the Polish armed forces, told dpa.

According to Polish figures, "several dozen" Bundeswehr engineers are stationed in the Masurian lake district at the Polish Land Forces training centre in Bemowo Piskie. The deployment is initially planned to run until the end of October.