Russia and Belarus have today started important joint military exercises. This was announced by the Russian army, a few days after the unprecedented intrusion of alleged Russian drones in the Polish territory. “The joint strategic maneuvers of the Russian and Belarusian armed forces began,” said the Russian Ministry of Defense in a press release. These exercises, which take place while the Russian army advances on the Ukrainian front, arouse great concern in NATO countries.
According to the Belarusse authorities, the exercises will be held today to Tuesday near a city east of the capital, Minsk. According to the Russian army, some “practical actions” will also take place in the Russian territory, as well as in the Barents Sea and the Baltic Sea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the purpose of Russian-Bielorusse maneuvers “was certainly not defensive” and “are not only aimed at Ukraine”, he added.
According to Donald Tusk, the maneuvers aim to simulate the occupation of the Suwalki corridor, which runs along the border between Poland and Lithuania, with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad to the west and Belarus east. This corridor is often considered a weak point of NATO, which could be the first goal of a possible Russian attack.
Russia has rejected the concerns relating to military exercises, nicknamed Zapad-2025 “West-2025”, in reference to the fact that they take place in the western part of the Russian-Bielorussa alliance. The Cremlin spokesman, Dmitrij Peskov, assured that they were “planned exercises, are not aimed at anyone”.
Zapad exercises usually take place every four years.
The 2025 edition is the first since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, in February 2022. The 2021 exercise had mobilized about 200 thousand Russian soldiers, a few months before the start of the offensive. This time, the scope of the exercises is expected to be much smaller, with hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers lined up in Ukraine. Belarus had declared in January that 13 thousand soldiers would participate in the exercises, but in May it communicated that this number would be halved.
Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, NATO members and neighbors of Belarus, have strengthened safety measures and limited air traffic in some areas. Warsaw also ordered the complete closure of his border with Belarus during maneuvers.
This fear is “a total absurdity”, liquidated the president of the Bielorusso Alexander Lukashenko. Defense Minister Bielorusso recently declared to the state media that Zapad exercises have been moved away from the borders of Poland and Ukrainian to “reduce tensions”. However, Minsk confirmed that the maneuvers would involve Hypersonic Oreshnik missiles with nuclear ability, developed by Russia and destined to be lined up in Belarus.
For Alexander Khramchikhin, military analyst based in Moscow, these Zapad exercises are a “mere show” without real meaning. But Vasily Kashin, Russian Council analyst for international affairs, linked to the Kremlin, believes that the maneuvers are “both a demonstration and a true fighting for combat”. “We must be ready to defend Belarus, if necessary,” he commented.
Poland and its allies have announced that they will hold their exercises in September. For Vasily Kashin, the simultaneous organization of rival military exercises by Russia and NATO Member States is destined to last, “as happened during the Cold War”, he observed.
These exercises between Russia and Belarus take place in a climate of strong tension after the intrusion of about twenty drones in the Polish aerial space on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, considered deliberated by Warsaw and its allies but denied by Moscow.