Poland will shut its border with Belarus at midnight on Thursday local time due to the Zapad military exercises taking place in Belarus, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Tuesday, as tensions between Warsaw and Minsk continue to escalate.
The “Zapad-2025” (West-2025) drills, scheduled for western Russia and Belarus, have heightened security concerns in neighbouring NATO states Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.
“On Friday, Russian-Belarusian manoeuvres, highly aggressive in terms of military doctrine, will begin in Belarus, very close to the Polish border,” Tusk said during a government meeting.
“For national security reasons, we will therefore close the border with Belarus, including rail crossings, from midnight on Thursday in connection with the Zapad exercises,” he added.
Relations between Poland and Belarus, already fraught since Minsk’s ally Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, have deteriorated further. Most crossings on the border are already closed, with only two still operating.
On Thursday, Belarusian media reported that a Polish citizen had been detained on espionage charges for allegedly possessing documents linked to the Zapad drills.
According to Belarus’s defence minister, the Zapad-2025 exercises will include scenarios involving the potential use of nuclear weapons and the Russian-made, intermediate-range hypersonic Oreshnik missile. NATO will stage parallel exercises on its side of the border.
The Belarusian and Russian embassies in Warsaw did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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