The East Shield border fortification programme is designed to make it more difficult for a potential aggressor to operate along Poland's eastern border while improving conditions for defending forces.
The programme includes conventional fortifications such as anti-tank barriers, as well as storage sites for materials that can be used to build barriers or block roads.
It also includes surveillance and anti-drone systems, military supply depots and measures to preserve natural obstacles such as wetlands and dense forests.
According to the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, about 100 kilometres of the border has been secured through a combination of linear fortifications and materials stored at designated sites.
The total length is expected to exceed 200 kilometres by the end of the year, according to the military.
Sixteen storage sites have so far been established, some of which have already been stocked, while materials are being deployed at the remaining sites.
Military engineers are expected to begin construction of seven more facilities soon. The necessary properties have been acquired and required administrative approvals completed, the General Staff said in late July.
The storage sites contain anti-tank barriers, prefabricated concrete structures, concrete obstacles, roadblock components, fortification structures and barbed wire, it added.
The materials are intended to restrict an adversary's freedom of movement, slow its advance, force it to deploy engineering units and channel its forces toward areas advantageous to defenders, according to the military.
In peacetime, the materials remain at designated storage sites, allowing the land to remain accessible to residents and businesses while enabling the military to rapidly deploy defensive barriers when and where needed.
"Materials needed to expand defences must be stockpiled before a threat emerges, rather than ordered only during a crisis," the General Staff said.
The European Union is helping finance the East Shield programme through its SAFE defence funding mechanism.
Poland's land border with Russia's Kaliningrad region and Belarus stretches for 628 kilometres, state news agency PAP reported.
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Source: PAP