Russia and its key ally, Belarus, have launched joint military exercises, in a context of tensions with NATO countries after Poland has accused Moscow of having launched attack drones in its airspace. “The joint strategic maneuvers of Russian and Belarusian armies have started,” said the Russian Ministry of Defense in a note.
As announced, Poland has closed all the border passes with Belarus left -long out of midnight until now. This was announced by the Polish Minister of the Interior, Marcin Kierwinski, at the Terepol border pass, the only one still operational, cited by Tass. “At midnight we closed the traffic on the border with Belarus. This is linked to the Zapad-2025 military exercises,” said the minister during a press conference broadcast by the TV channel TVP Info. “The traffic will resume, but only when we are sure that the safety of the Poles will be guaranteed. From an economic point of view, we will commit ourselves to reopening the border as soon as possible,” he added.
On September 9, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that the border with Belarus would have been closed on September 12 due to the start of the joint Russian-Bielorusse exercises called Zapad-2025. The next day, Kierwinski signed the order in question, which establishes that the measure applies to both people and vehicles, including trucks and freight trains, traveling to and from the country, and will remain in force “up to new warning”. The Bielorusso Foreign Ministry condemned the Warsaw decision, calling it unfounded and addressed against ordinary people.
Moscow, 221 Ukrainian drones during the night demolished
Russia has announced that it had killed 221 Ukrainian drones overnight, in one of the most massive attacks of the Kiev army in three and a half years of Russian offensive. Of these “intercepted and demolished” drones by the Russian aerial defenses, nine were located on the Moscow region and 28 on the region where the second largest city in the country is located, St. Petersburg (North-West), said the Ministry of Defense on Telegram, on the day when Russia and Belarus launched important joint military exercises and two days after the entry of the Russian drones in Poland.