Finnish border guards on Friday presented a detailed plan to build a fence to strengthen security on the border with Russia, which has come under pressure since the invasion of Ukraine, AFP reports.

A three-meter fence covered with barbed wire will be erected along a 200-kilometer section of the road at a total cost of 380 million euros.

Especially sensitive areas will be equipped with night vision cameras, lighting and loudspeakers, the head of the border protection project, Ismo Kurki, said at the press conference.

Construction, divided into three phases, will begin in March 2023 with the installation of a three-kilometer pilot barrier at the Imatra border crossing.

Depending on the results of this phase, in the second phase, by the end of 2023, it is planned to build another 70 kilometers of barriers in the areas around the checkpoints.

The government has already allocated an additional budget of €6 million for the pilot phase and €139 million for the second phase.

According to Brigadier General Jari Tolpanen, the last phase should be completed in 2025 or 2026.

“This is one of the largest projects the Border Patrol has ever undertaken,” he told reporters.

Fearing that Moscow could use the migrants to exert political pressure, NATO candidate Finland amended its border guard law in July to make it easier to build stronger barriers.

Although Finland’s border with Russia used to work “well”, the war in Ukraine has “fundamentally” changed the security situation.

“In this situation, we have every reason to review our arrangements,” Tolpanen told AFP.

Currently, the borders of Finland are mainly protected by light wooden fences, designed mainly to prevent animals.

The new changes allow the closure of crossing points and the accumulation of asylum seekers at certain points in case of large-scale attempts to enter Finland.

For Tolpanen, this means that “in an extreme situation” border guards “are responsible for preventing entry to Finland”, which is a “new” task.

According to him, border barriers are “indispensable” in order to stop large-scale illegal entry from the territory of Russia.

Estonia, Latvia and Poland have also strengthened or plan to strengthen security at their borders with Russia.

In September, Russians crossed into Finland en masse after President Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization of reservists to fight in Ukraine.

Then Helsinki severely restricted the entry of Russian citizens into its territory.