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Moscow urges Poland to reopen border with Belarus
Russia has urged Poland to reconsider its decision to close the border with Belarus, a move announced earlier this week by Warsaw in response to upcoming joint Russian-Belarusian military drills.
In a statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called on the Polish government to “reflect on the consequences of such counterproductive measures” and to reverse the decision as soon as possible. She argued that Warsaw’s actions serve only “to justify a policy of escalating tensions in Central Europe.”
The large-scale exercises, known as Zapad-2025 (“West-2025”), are scheduled to begin on September 12 and run until September 16. NATO member states have expressed concern, particularly after several suspected Russian drones entered Polish airspace earlier this week.
On Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that the border with Belarus would be closed at midnight between Thursday and Friday, citing national security concerns. He described the exercises as “aggressive,” claiming they were designed to simulate the capture of the so-called Suwałki corridor, a strategic stretch of land linking Poland and Lithuania that separates Belarus from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. The corridor is often described as NATO’s most vulnerable point in the region.
Zakharova insisted that Poland had ignored what she called a “gesture of goodwill” from Moscow and Minsk, which agreed to move part of the exercises away from the border and to reduce the number of troops and equipment involved. She warned that the closure would also cause “serious economic damage” to Poland’s trading partners and companies using the route for goods transit.
Belarus remains one of Russia’s closest allies and played a key role in the early stages of Moscow’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Minsk has also announced that during Zapad-2025, its forces will train with Orechnik missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.