Eastern Europe dawns this Friday on a maximum alert for the strategic military exercises that Russia and Belarus are brought from hands. Zapad-2025 maneuvers between the two countries have started, in the Polish airspace. For authorities of this country we are facing the most serious notice of a possible conflict “from the beginning of the”.
“The practical actions of the troops will take place in Beelorus and Russia polygons, as well as in the waters of the Baltic and Barents seas,” said Russia’s Ministry of Defense by announcing the beginning of the exercises, EFE reports. The exercises, which will have the participation of some 30,000 soldiers, will be carried out in different parts of the border. A maneuver of this type, in mid -February 2022, served to place soldiers from the Federation on the border. On the 24th of that month the invasion of Ukraine was launched.
According to the Ministry of Defense of Belarus, the first Russian soldiers are already there since the beginning of August, as shown in some of the images shared by the department itself. Russia, meanwhile, has denied that these maneuvers are directed against third countries. “They are not directed against anyone is the continuation of military cooperation and the improvement of the interaction between two strategic allies,” said presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov.
And in response to these exercises, Poland has deployed 40,000 soldiers on their eastern borders, mainly in the 400 kilometers he shares with Belarus. This has been announced by the Secretary of State for Defense, Cezary Tomczyk, who recalled that these joint maneuvers served in preceding years of training for the invasion of in 2014 or that of Donbás in 2022. “Zapad exercises are of an offensive nature,” said Tomczyk, citing the name of Russian and Belarusian maneuvers.
Together with the military deployment that will be accompanied by extensive surveillance by NATO allies with a presence on the east flank of Europe, both Poland and Latvia have decided to close their borders with Russia and, a pure satellite of the Kremlin. In the last hours, Lithuania has also closed part of its airspace on the eastern border, while NATO fighters have made surveillance flights in this country and on Estonia.
The Supreme Commander of NATO warns Russia: “We are prepared for a larger deployment if necessary”
In the case of Poland, the closure is total, even cutting the rail connection and the decision is accompanied by restrictions already in force on certain extensions of its airspace in the eastern half of its territory.
Poland fears especially for a potential threat from Russia towards the call, a strip of land that separates Lithuania from Poland, but whose conquest could serve Moscow to unite the territory of Belarus to the east with the Russian exclave of Kalinningrado to the west.
The authorities of Poland assume that the incident with the Russian drones has been intentionally, something that NATO for the moment resists qualifying that way. “It has been a political test and also a test for NATO. But above all, it has been an exam to verify our capacity to respond to a provocation of Russia,” said Polish President Karol Nawrocki.
