Lithuania set to receive 100 km of barbed wire from Estonia – minister

VILNIUS – Lithuania set to receive around 100 km of barbed wire, the so-called concertina, from Estonia to be able to continue building a barrier along the most vulnerable sections of its border with Belarus, Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite says.

"The acquisition of concertina is ongoing, that supply-related process continues. Probably, tomorrow morning we will receive 100km of concertina from Estonia. I am very grateful to the Estonians. Probably, those bilateral ties and that bilateral contacts is producing results," the minister told journalists on Monday.

In her words, offers have also been received from Denmark and Slovenia, and also small-value procurements are also ongoing in Lithuania, with their winner is set to be announced later on Monday.

As border guards have already recorded three cases when migrants crossed the Belarusian-Lithuanian border in areas with concertina barbed ware is already in place, Bilotaite says "various engineering solutions" are planned to make the barrier more effective.

According to the interior minister, barbed wire will be installed in a 100-km section.

"The issue of a fence or that wall is also being designed and looked into, and it might be so that both barbed wire and a fence will be installed in the most dangerous sections," Bilotaite said.

She said earlier that the plan was to build a barrier alongside the whole 550-km border section, adding that a higher wall will be built later on, valued at around 41 million euros.

Representatives for the Lithuanian army said last Friday only barbed wire had been installed only in a 1.5 km border section so far as there's a lack of barbed wire itself.