[Regnum] The Polish authorities have decided to redeploy about 40 thousand soldiers to the border with Russia and Belarus in the coming days. This was announced on September 11 by Deputy Minister of Defense of Poland Cezary Tomczyk.According to him, the decision is connected with the Russian-Belarusian military exercises "West-2025", which will start in Belarus on September 12. Tomczyk said that Warsaw had been preparing for these exercises for several months, while the Polish armed forces held their own exercises with the participation of more than 30 thousand people.
“Polish and NATO soldiers are needed for an adequate response to the Zapad-2025 exercises <…> In the coming days, there will be about 40,000 of our soldiers on the border,” the Anadolu agency reports him as saying.
Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the closure of the border with Belarus for an indefinite period. He said that Warsaw regards the joint exercises "West-2025" as training for an "attack" on Poland, promising to apply special measures if the alleged provocations from the Belarusian side are repeated.
Commenting on the closure of the Polish-Belarusian border at Warsaw's initiative, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, stated that Poland, in the eyes of its own citizens, has lost to Belarus in matters of freedom and democracy.
Joint Russian-Belarusian exercises will be held from September 12 to 16. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko previously noted that the exercises are defensive in nature. Their goal is to test the capabilities of the Russian Federation and Belarus to ensure the military security of the Union State and readiness to repel possible aggression.