For countries on Europe’s easternmost flank, Russia is a present and looming threat — and they are preparing in case Moscow once again decides to test Nato’s defensive resolve.
With Russia strengthening its military presence in the region and US commitment to the European defence pact wavering, the alliance and its members are racing to build defences.
Countries are bringing back conscription, acquiring more weaponry and fortifying their borders. Finland has accelerated construction of a 200km fence and boosted surveillance and patrols.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are building a Baltic defence line made up of concrete bunkers and anti-tank ditches along a 600-mile stretch of border with Russia and its ally Belarus — the most exposed part of Nato’s eastern frontier.
Lithuania is particularly vulnerable. It is bordered to the south by the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and the Suwalki gap — the only territory connecting the Baltic states to the rest of Nato.
Poland is constructing €2.3bn worth of defences to form an ‘East Shield’ — the largest attempt to strengthen the country’s eastern border since 1945.
To its east, Ukraine illustrates the devastation wrought when Russia invades.
The outcome there will determine what Moscow does next, warns ex-Nato head Anders Fogh Rasmussen. ‘If Putin gets any success in Ukraine, he won’t stop there.’
