Finland has completed the first 35 kilometers of a fence it is building on its closed eastern border with Russia, aiming to stop migrants trying to cross through forested terrain.
Reuters reports this, citing Finnish border guards.
Construction of the fence, which will eventually cover 200 km of the total border length of 1 344 km, began last year in response to a migrant flow through Russia in 2023, which Helsinki believes was deliberately organized by Moscow.
"The main purpose of this fence is to control a large mass of people if they try to get from Russia to Finland," the deputy commander of the Southeastern Finland Border District Annti Virta told Reuters.
The fence consists of a 3.5-meter-high metal fence topped with a meter-long roll of barbed wire, and is equipped with cameras, sensors, loudspeakers and lighting. According to the Finnish Border Guard, construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
What is happening on the Russian-Finnish border?
In recent years, Finland has been preparing for Russia to send large numbers of asylum seekers to the border, as the Russians did at the Finnish border during the 2015 migration crisis.
In November 2023, border guards reported that an unusually large number of people without entry documents were trying to enter Finland through checkpoints on the southeastern border. On November 15, the Finnish Prime Minister stated that Russia was helping illegal migrants, including citizens of the Russian Federation, the Middle East, and Africa, enter the country. Due to this surge in illegal migration, Finland decided to close border checkpoints on the border with Russia.
Finnish Interior Minister Marie Rantanen called the situation at the border a threat to national security.
The border closure has been extended several times, most recently in April 2025.
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