Tusk shores up Poland's defences in massive £2bn plan to make border 'impenetrable'

Tusk said: "We are opening a great project of the construction of a safe border, including a system of fortifications and of the shaping of terrain that will make this border impenetrable by a potential enemy.

"We have begun these works to make Poland's border a safe one in times of peace, and impenetrable for an enemy in times of war.

"We will build the East Shield and thereby fulfil the task assigned by Nato of deterrence and defence.

"These tasks are extremely important, as the largest country on Nato’s eastern flank.

"Fortifications, forestation where necessary, and various types of obstacles will be built along the entire border of Poland with Belarus and the Russian Federation."

The Shield will see a network of bunkers, military defences and surveillance equipment all along its 650-kilometre-long border with Russia and Belarus - which will join an existing £315million border wall established to clamp down on illegal migration from Belarus.

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And the fortifications are set to link up with those on which building work is underway in the Baltic states, which will doubtless assuage concerns that Russian forces may look to push through the "Suwałki Gap" - a 40-mile-long stretch of Poland and Lithuania - from Belarus in order to access their exclave of Kaliningrad.

Tusk said the new measures would "protect us against potential attacks, but its purpose will be to deter the enemy".

The PM added: "This will be a strategy to push the war away from our border. Poland will be strong thanks to its own actions, thanks to its alliances."

Poland's Deputy PM, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said the move was a "grand plan for a safe Poland from the east, from the invader who, over the generations and in various ways, has tried to bring destruction, hunger, death and suffering to our lands".

And General Waldemar Skrzypczak, the former commander of the Polish Land Forces, said the East Shield was necessary due to the "hybrid invasion and informational warfare" to which Poland has been subjected in recent years.

Skrzypczak said: "[Belarusian President] Lukashenko's migrants are assaulting our eastern border, so there is a need to strengthen border defence systems... Equally important is the threat of Russian invasion, blustered by Putin in Poland and Nato's direction."

The news comes mere weeks after Poland announced it was ready to enter negotiations with the US about hosting nuclear weapons to strengthen Nato's eastern flank.

In April, President Andrzej Duda said: "Russia is increasingly militarising Kaliningrad... Recently it has been relocating its nuclear weapons to Belarus.

"If our allies decide to deploy nuclear arms on our territory as part of nuclear sharing, to reinforce Nato's eastern flank, we are ready to do so.

"I've already talked about it several times. I must admit that when asked about it, I declared our readiness."

Asked about the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "The military will analyse the situation. If these plans are implemented, all necessary steps will be taken to ensure our security."