Russia and Belarus start military exercise near NATO border after drone incursion

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian and Belarus began a major joint military exercise on NATO’s doorstep on Friday that will involve drills in both countries and in the Baltic and Barents seas, the Russian defence ministry said.

The “Zapad-2025” exercise – a show of force by Russia and its close ally – is taking place at an exceptionally tense moment in the Russia-Ukraine war, two days after Poland, with support from its NATO allies, shot down suspected Russian drones over its airspace.

The Zapad (“West”) exercise was scheduled well before the drone incident, for which Russia denied responsibility.

WHAT WILL THE EXERCISE INVOLVE?

“The objectives of the drills are to improve the skills of commanders and staffs, the level of co-operation and field training of regional and coalition groupings of troops,” the defence ministry said on Telegram.

In a first stage, troops will 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.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that the drills, including near the Polish border, were not aimed against any other country.

But this week’s drone incident over Poland was seen in the West as an alarm call for NATO and a test of its responses. Western countries called it a deliberate provocation by Russia, which Moscow denied.

A senior Russian diplomat in Poland said the drones had come from the direction of Ukraine. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its drones had carried out an attack in western Ukraine, but it had not planned to hit any targets in Poland.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Russia’s drone incursion into Poland 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,” Trump told reporters before boarding Marine One on Thursday.

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.

Belarus also shares borders with NATO members Lithuania and Latvia. Lithuania said it was protecting its border because of the military exercise.

(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Mark Trevelyan, editing by Philippa Fletcher)