Lines of anti-tank defences at the first built part of the East Shield defense project on Poland's Russian border in Dabrowka.
Photographer: Damian Lemański/BloombergEurope’s Defenses Risk Faltering Within Weeks Without US Support
If attacked, Europe’s ammunition stockpiles could run low within days and rearming will take years.
A few weeks after Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk traveled to the marshy forests near the border with Russia to showcase one of Europe’s most ambitious defense projects.
The first section of the country’s $2.5 billion East Shield — an 800-kilometer (500-mile) stretch of fences, concrete barricades and anti-tank moats — was completed in late November, and Tusk wanted to show that Poland was doing its part to secure the continent from potential aggression from the Kremlin.
