– On Friday, the aggressive Russian-Belarusian exercises "Zapad" begin. On the night of Thursday for Friday we will close the border with Belarus, including rail crossings – Prime Minister Donald Tusk informed on Tuesday. The borders are to be blocked at precisely midnight.
Poland closes the border with Belarus
He added that Poland will respond to these actions. He stressed that we are dealing with many provocations from Belarus. “The answer will be the exercises of the Polish army and allies.”
Russia and Belarus will conduct military exercises "Zapad" for the first time since the end of 2021. These strategical maneuvers have taken place since 1977, initially within the Warsaw Pact and then as Russian-Belarusian cooperation.
As reported by The Moscow Times, the last edition in 2021 included as many as 200,000 Russian and 13 1000 Belarusian soldiers. They were conducted on 9 ground in Russia and 5 in Belarus. These maneuvers were 1 of the elements of escalation leading to a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They were followed by a migration crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border.
What are collapse exercises?
In December 2021 Vladimir Putin sent an ultimatum to NATO, and in February 2022 Russian troops entered Ukraine's territory from Belarus, where they had previously been assembled.
So the "Fall 2025" exercises are very emotional. However, both governments – Belarusian and Russian – are deliberately playing with tension, alternately heating fears of escalation to then alleviate them. "At the beginning of the year more than 13,000 Belarusian soldiers were announced, later these numbers were to be reduced, and maneuvers moved deeper into Belarus. However, it was then announced that part of the exercise would take place closer to the border with Lithuania and Poland" - says The Moscow Times.
Meanwhile, these changes are mostly rhetorical. In fact, the training plan was approved in the fall of 2024.
Let us add that president Karol Nawrocki besides spoke on Tuesday about the threat from Russia in Finland.
"We talked about safety first today. past shows that both we and Finns know the soul of Russia. We are convinced that Putin is ready to hit another countries, which is why we are developing our cooperation. We are pleased that we can number on Finland in terms of safety architecture in the region" - says his Chancellery.
