NATO eastern flank countries expand border defenses and raise defense spending

Finland, Poland and Lithuania are expanding barriers, sensors and reserve forces along their borders with Russia and Belarus. Finland maintains the ability to mobilize nearly 870,000 reservists from a population of 5.6 million, a figure projected to reach one million by 2031.

The country currently spends nearly 3 percent of GDP on defense and plans to raise that share to 5 percent by 2035. Col. Matti Pitkäniitty, commander of Finland's North Karelia Border Guard District, said the country must be ready to absorb the first blow alone.

"We have to be able to use the terrain, operate the environment better than anyone else — then, we have leverage," he told reporters. Finland withdrew from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines and will purchase the weapons in coming months for use only if an invasion threat becomes imminent.

Two multinational exercises held in May trained allied troops to fight in the country's dense forests and swamps.

Poland is building the Eastern Shield, a network of anti-tank barriers, trenches, bunkers and sensors along its 800-kilometer frontier with Belarus and Kaliningrad. The project is roughly halfway complete and is scheduled for full operation by 2028 at an estimated cost of €10 billion.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk inspected the first completed section in November 2024. Local residents told reporters that construction activity increased sharply before the visit and then largely stopped. Warsaw now spends 4.8 percent of GDP on defense.

Its army is NATO's third largest and has purchased large numbers of tanks, infantry vehicles and rocket artillery from the United States and South Korea.