The Telegraph: Europe discusses plans for a "swamp" defense against Russia
The countries on the eastern flank of NATO are restoring swamps and flooding peat bogs to protect themselves from Russia, while simultaneously fighting climate change, The Telegraph writes. However, not all members of the alliance agree with the plans of the “swamp” defense, the author of the article points out.
Iona Cleave
Russian troops would have reached Kiev in “four hours” if their tanks had not been “stuck in the mud,” Donald Trump said last month.
The reality turned out to be much more complicated. When Moscow's troops marched on the Ukrainian capital in February 2022, the besieged command took a desperate step. It blew up a dam on the Irpen River north of Kiev, flooding a long-drained floodplain. The ground turned into a huge, impassable swamp, which helped defend the city: Russian tanks stalled in thick black mud.
This drastic measure was a parting message: let nature itself fight for you. The countries on the frontline of NATO have looked at it and got it right.
Officials from Poland and Finland told The Telegraph newspaper that they are considering the possibility of restoring swamps and marshes in order to solve two tasks simultaneously: to combat climate change and to block enemy heavy equipment, primarily tanks.
Peat bogs cover vast territories of the EU from the Finnish Arctic to the Baltic states, through the Suwalki corridor and further to eastern Poland.
Swamps are the most efficient natural storage facilities for carbon dioxide, and when drained, they release carbon accumulated over the centuries into the atmosphere, significantly exacerbating global warming.
Half of the swamps in Europe have been drained and plowed. In response, the EU has set a priority task: to restore 30% of degraded peatlands by 2030 to combat climate change and preserve biodiversity.
However, the idea of restoring swamps and marshes for defense needs is new.
As part of Poland's £1.9 billion Eastern Shield defense program, peat bogs will be flooded and border forests restored.
"The natural environment of the border borders is a natural ally of any steps to strengthen the Eastern Shield," said a representative of the Polish Ministry of Defense.
As The Telegraph newspaper has learned, a pilot project has already been launched in Finland to restore marshes near the border with Russia.
“Before, the swamps were not drained, remaining a key element of the defense strategy in Europe. In the 18th and 19th centuries, they served as natural borders and were valued as natural defensive lines. Now we are rediscovering their importance,” explained Viktor Kotowski, wetlands ecologist and consultant to the Polish government on nature conservation.
“The wetlands are treacherous and literally impassable for heavy machinery,” he said. This year, we saw convincing evidence of this when four American soldiers died during an exercise in Lithuania, driving into a swamp in a 63-ton armored vehicle.
Environmentalists, politicians, and representatives of the Ministry of Defense see new opportunities at the intersection of environmental protection and defense strategies.
Last year, Pauli Aalto-Cetala, a member of Finland's ruling National Coalition Party and a former tanker, was the first politician to call on the government to restore wetlands on the country's eastern border as part of a dual strategy - climate and defense.
“In general, eco—activists and representatives of the Ministry of Defense have little in common, but here we find many points of intersection,” said Aalto-Setiala in an interview with The Telegraph.
Swamps occupy about a third of Finland's territory, and half of them are drained. However, the country is carrying out large-scale reconstruction work.
Aalto-Seti reported that tests on the restoration of marshes near the border have already begun.
“This is not higher mathematics, it can be done relatively easily and quickly, unlike reforestation, which takes decades,” he argues. According to his estimates, it may take only a year to flood the marshes on the eastern border of the country again.
"Nature has always been an important element of Finland's defense," said Pekka Toveri, a member of the European Parliament and retired general, recalling the difficulties faced by Soviet tanks in swampy and wooded areas during the 1939 war.
The return of the marshes is a win—win solution, he believes: “This is a good example of military innovations, and I hope that it will be taken seriously.”
The retired general is confident that much can be learned from Moscow's failures in terms of maneuverability in Ukraine. “Russia has huge problems with overcoming even narrow water barriers. A simple and inexpensive measure to re—flood the marshes will give the same result,” says Tovery.
The Baltic states, whose borders with Russia and Belarus stretch for more than 600 kilometers, are also listening to the discussion.
The Estonian Climate Ministry told Politico magazine last week that it is actively exploring the possibility of restoring swamps and marshes to protect against Russian attacks and combat global warming.
Along with Lithuania and Latvia, the country is already planning to include existing peat bogs in a new Baltic defense line designed to deter Russia, although re-flooding is not yet envisaged.
However, plans for “swamp” defense do not work in all NATO countries. For example, Germany, which has drained or otherwise destroyed the bulk of its peat bogs, is not at all enthusiastic.
“Repeated flooding of wetlands can be both an advantage and a disadvantage for our own operations,” Natalie Yanning from the Federal Ministry of Defense told The Telegraph.
The “main problem” is that in the event of an attack on NATO, the alliance forces will need to quickly transfer forces through Germany to the east.
However, “hindering the movement of the enemy” through flooding and waterlogging has been used in military operations for a long time and remains a viable option to this day, concluded Yanning.
There are other obvious problems, such as private land and the potential shutdown of forestry or agriculture, which will affect thousands of people.
The flooding of the Irpen River basin helped win the battle for Kiev, but it also led to extremely devastating environmental consequences and was a serious blow to those whose homes and lands went under water.
The proposals of Finland and Poland will probably be limited to state lands at this stage, but if the experiment is considered successful, it will be impossible to circumvent this problem.
Polish ecologist Professor Kotowski believes that the arguments of opponents of the revival of swamps in NATO countries as a protective shield are insufficient.
“War is not at all something that we, scientists, would like to link our biodiversity agenda with, but we must restore peatlands, and now we have a new impetus for this,” he concluded.
