Several European governments are restoring bogs and marshes along their eastern borders and accelerating stockpiles of essential goods as part of a broader push to increase civil and military readiness against possible further aggression from Russia.
Officials in Finland and Poland have publicly discussed large-scale "rewetting" of drained peatlands close to frontiers to create terrain that would slow or deny the movement of heavy armoured vehicles. The measures are being pursued alongside national defence investments, expanded border obstacles in the Baltic states and a new European Commission-led stockpiling strategy intended to secure supplies of food, water and medicines in crises.
Poland has included wetland restoration in a wider Eastern Shield programme that the government values at roughly £1.9 billion, saying re-established swampland and forests near the border are "an obvious ally" to other defensive measures. This summer Polish forces added protective minefields along a 20-kilometre stretch bordering Russia and Belarus and have announced plans to expand their armed forces from about 190,000 personnel toward some 300,000 within a few years.
In Finland, researchers and defence planners have pointed to large tracts of drained peatland that could be rewetted without displacing major population centres. Kristiina Lang, a peat specialist at the Natural Resources Institute of Finland, told reporters that drained peatland accounts for 10% of Finland’s agricultural land but produces more than half of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that rewetting areas near the eastern border could meet both environmental and defensive aims.
The European Commission has put forward a broad "readiness" agenda this year that includes coordinated stockpiles and civil-preparedness guidance. EU crisis management commissioner Hadja Lahbib said the aim is "to make sure that essential supplies that keep our societies running, especially the ones that save lives, are always available." Brussels has also urged households to maintain a basic three-day survival kit, recommending items such as matches, identity documents in a waterproof pouch, bottled water, energy bars and a flashlight.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has framed the measures as part of an effort to deter a wider offensive by Moscow. Addressing a conference of German ambassadors, Merz warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions "wouldn't end with the conquest of Ukraine but would rather be just the start," and said Berlin was seeing "daily and with increasing intensity hybrid Russian attacks, including on our infrastructure."
The restoration of wetlands as a defensive tactic draws on precedent from the early months of the 2022 war in Ukraine, when Ukrainian forces breached a Soviet-era dam north of Kyiv and flooded roughly 2,800 hectares of the Irpin basin to impede the advance of Russian armour. Military analysts and some national officials have cited that episode as evidence wetlands can be an effective obstacle against mechanised columns, while environmental scientists warn the tactic carries long-term ecological and public-health costs.
Environmental trade-offs are central to the debate. Peatlands are major carbon stores when intact but emit substantial greenhouse gases if drained; EU countries reported roughly 124 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from drained peatlands in 2022. The European Commission has set restoration targets for degraded peatlands of 30% over the next five years and 50% by 2050, citing climate and biodiversity benefits as well as the potential secondary defence value of rewetting in some border areas.
Restoration plans face political and practical hurdles. Many peatlands are privately owned or have been converted to agriculture since World War II, and landowners are likely to resist loss of productive land. Scientists also note that flooding or rewetting can have unintended ecological and public-health effects if not carefully managed: the 2022 Irpin floods, for example, produced sewage and heavy-metal contamination in some residential areas, according to environmental assessments.
Responses vary across the region. Lithuania has combined wetland discussion with a broad engineering approach to its border defences, building multi-layered belts that include anti-tank ditches, embankments, dragon’s teeth, minefields and deliberately destructible bridges designed to slow an advance from Kaliningrad or Belarus. Estonian officials approved a four-year defence funding package worth about €2.8 billion earlier this year, aiming to lift average defence spending to about 5.4% of GDP through 2029. Latvia and Lithuania, along with Estonia, have added obstacles and redoubts to long-standing fences along their borders with Russia and Belarus.
France’s health ministry has told health authorities to prepare for a potential "major engagement" by March 2026, instructing civilian hospitals to anticipate the possible treatment of a significant influx of military casualties from abroad. Sweden has distributed preparedness pamphlets to its population and urged households to consider civil-defence measures. In contrast, Britain’s senior military leadership has acknowledged gaps in civil planning compared with some continental allies, and London has been urged to study allied exercises and plans to close those gaps.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly warned Western allies that Russian aggression could extend beyond Ukraine. His comments, and repeated intelligence assessments highlighting Moscow’s efforts to modernise and test hybrid tools for pressure and sabotage, have helped drive the EU and NATO members to layer civil and military preparedness measures in recent months.
Officials stress that rewetting and stockpiling are part of a broader, multifaceted approach that also includes conventional military investments, improved intelligence and infrastructure protection. Policymakers face the task of balancing short-term deterrence goals with long-term environmental management, legal property rights and the social costs of shifting land use. The Commission and national governments say they will continue consultations with local communities, environmental scientists and defence planners as they pursue measures intended to strengthen deterrence and national resilience.