‘The Bucha Effect’: Why Neighboring Countries Are Fencing Themselves Off From Belarus And Russia
9- 4.11.2024, 17:03
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The Ukrainian experience has changed the concept of security in both Poland and the Baltic countries.
The construction of the “Eastern Shield” fortification system by Poland on the borders with Russia and Belarus is the country's reaction to the “Bucha effect”. This was stated on the air of the FREEDOM TV channel by former member of the Polish government, former secretary of the Polish delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Piotr Kulpa.
“Yes, this is in fact the result of the “Bucha effect”. Because NATO's defense doctrine was based on what was called deterrence by punishment. This allowed for the option that the Russians would enter the territory of Poland or the Baltic countries, and then the alliance would recapture the captured territories. Well, what they showed in Bucha, in Irpin, in Borodyanka, where people were simply killed, where they simply showed that in a short time they were capable of destroying a significant part of the population. This atrocity simply made NATO strategists realize that no country would allow their population to be occupied because the Russians showed themselves to be real bandits. This changed the way of thinking about defense,” he said.
Kulpa also emphasized that it is very difficult for Russian occupiers to break through in places where Ukraine has built fortifications. This Ukrainian experience changed the concept both in Poland and in the Baltic countries, which do not intend to let Russians into their territory.
“That is why the concept, on the one hand, of countering hybrid warfare, and combat fortification, in fact, so that the border is a line through which we do not let a potential occupier through,” he said.