By Mark Trevelyan
(Reuters) – Russia and Belarus began a major joint military exercise on NATO’s doorstep on Friday at a time of heightened tension with the Western alliance, two days after Poland shot down Russian drones that crossed into its airspace.
The “Zapad-2025” exercise, a show of force by Russia and its close ally Belarus, is taking place at training grounds in both countries, including close to the Polish border.
It was scheduled well before the drone incident, which marked the first known occasion that a NATO member had fired against incoming Russian targets in the course of the 3-1/2-year war.
WHAT WILL THE EXERCISE INVOLVE?
Russia’s defence ministry said that in the first phase of the exercise, troops would simulate repelling an attack against Russia and Belarus, whose alliance is known as the Union State.
The second stage will focus on “restoring the territorial integrity of the Union State and crushing the enemy, including with the participation of a coalition group of forces from friendly states”, the ministry said.
Belarus borders three NATO members – Poland, Lithuania and Latvia – to its west, and Ukraine to its south.
The Kremlin said on Friday that European concerns about the exercises were an emotional response based on hostility towards Russia. It has declined to comment on this week’s drone incident, which was seen in the West as a wake-up call for NATO and a test of its responses.
Western countries called the drone episode a deliberate provocation by Russia, which Moscow denied. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its drones had carried out an attack in western Ukraine at the time, but it had not planned to hit any targets in Poland.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the Russian drone incursion could have been a mistake. “I’m not happy about anything to do with the whole situation, but hopefully that’s going to come to an end,” he told reporters on Thursday.
POLAND ON HIGH ALERT
Even before the incident, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk had described the upcoming “Zapad” manoeuvres as “very aggressive” and announced that Poland would close its border with Belarus at midnight on Thursday.
Deputy Polish Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk said Poland had been preparing for many months and was holding its own exercises, codenamed “Iron Defender”.
“There are about 30,000 soldiers in the Iron Defender exercise and about 5,000 on the border” with Belarus, Tomczyk said in response to Reuters’ questions.
Lithuania has also said it is protecting its border because of the military exercise.
Major General Pavel Muraveiko, chief of the Belarusian General Staff, said all the drills would be held at a “significant distance” from the borders with NATO members and Ukraine.
He said they would include drones, electronic warfare and the use of artificial intelligence to support decision-making.
The last Zapad exercises took place in September 2021, five months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which it launched in part from Belarusian territory.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has backed him throughout the war, although without committing his own troops to the fighting. Since it began, Belarus has allowed Russia to station tactical nuclear missiles on its soil and is preparing to host Moscow’s new Oreshnik hypersonic missile.
Lukashenko is simultaneously trying to repair relations with the United States after years of U.S. and EU sanctions. On Thursday he freed 52 prisoners at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump and said he stood alongside Trump in the latter’s efforts to resolve a series of international conflicts.
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan in London and Moscow bureau; additional reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Gareth Jones)
