According to her, the barrier should be 200 kilometers long and three meters high, with barbed wire in its upper part. Finland and Russia share the longest border in the European Union, at around 1,300 kilometers in length.

According to the BBC, Helsinki has been trying to strengthen its eastern border since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow launched more than a year ago.

And the station states that a large number of Russians began in September to flee to Finland in response to the mobilization ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Then Helsinki imposed significant restrictions on the entry of Russian citizens into its territory.

Work on the construction of the barrier began today at the Imatra border crossing by cutting the forest, in March workers should start building the road and installing the fence itself. The border guards said the pilot project, which is 3 km long, will be completed by the end of June.

Another 70km, mostly in southeastern Finland, is scheduled to be built between 2023 and 2025. In total, Helsinki plans to fence 200km of its border with Russia, AFP reports, with the final phase expected to be completed in 2026.

The construction cost is expected to be 380 million euros (nearly nine billion kronor). Some sections have night vision cameras, lights or speakers.

Currently, the Finnish border is mainly protected by light wooden fences, which are mainly intended to prevent cattle from wandering across the border, AFP reports.

According to her, Finland amended the border guard law last summer to make it easier to build a more robust fence.