slow advance<\/a> in Ukraine and intensify air attacks on Ukrainian cities. The Kremlin insists the drills were planned well before the drone incident.<\/p>\n\u201cThe objectives of the drills are to improve the skills of commanders and staffs, the level of cooperation and field training of regional and coalition groupings of troops,\u201d Russia\u2019s Ministry of Defence said on Telegram.<\/p>\n
Peskov stressed the exercises, including those near the Polish border, \u201care not aimed against any other country\u201d.<\/p>\n
But tensions are running high. Poland shut its last open border crossings with Belarus overnight, with state media in Minsk showing guards laying barbed wire along the frontier.<\/p>\n
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the coming period as \u201ccritical days\u201d, warning that his country was closer to \u201copen conflict\u201d than at any time since World War II.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision to close the border \u2026 is a response to very specific aggressive military exercises against Poland that are starting in Belarus,\u201d Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said. \u201cWe are doing this for the safety of our citizens. Russia has been behaving aggressively towards Poland in recent days and for many years \u2026 towards the entire civilised world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha welcomed his Polish counterpart Rados\u0142aw Sikorski in Kyiv before talks on shared security on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgainst the backdrop of Russia\u2019s escalation of terror against Ukraine and provocations against Poland, we stand firmly together,\u201d Sybiha wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Baltic states step up security<\/p>\n
Neighbouring Lithuania and Latvia, also NATO members, have stepped up security and announced partial airspace closures. Belarus says the drills will take place near Borisov, east of Minsk.<\/p>\n
In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow\u2019s intentions went beyond its war in Ukraine. \u201cThe meaning of such actions by Russia is definitely not defensive and is directed precisely against not only Ukraine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Zapad exercises are normally held every four years. The last, in 2021, mobilised some 200,000 Russian soldiers shortly before Moscow\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This year\u2019s version is expected to be smaller, as much of Russia\u2019s military remains committed to the battlefield. Belarus initially announced 13,000 soldiers would join, later halving that figure.<\/p>\n
Polish officials believe the drills may simulate an attack on the Suwalki corridor \u2013 the narrow stretch of NATO territory linking Poland and Lithuania between Belarus and Russia\u2019s Kaliningrad exclave. Military planners see the corridor as one of the alliance\u2019s most vulnerable points.<\/p>\n
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko dismissed those concerns as \u201cutter nonsense\u201d, while officials in Minsk earlier claimed the exercises were shifted away from NATO borders \u201cto reduce tensions\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said France will summon the Russian ambassador on Friday over this week\u2019s drone incursion into Poland\u2019s airspace, which he told France Inter radio was a deliberate strategy.<\/p>\n
France will deploy three Rafale fighter jets to help Poland protect its airspace after the drone incursions, French President Emmanuel Macron said late on Thursday.<\/p>\n
In addition, expanded German air policing over Poland is already in effect, a Defence Ministry spokesperson said on Friday in Berlin. \u201cAviation already established operational readiness yesterday evening,\u201d the spokesperson said at a regular government news conference.<\/p>\n
Drone attacks and deaths<\/p>\n
On the ground on Friday, three people were killed and five injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine\u2019s border region of Sumy, regional governor Oleh Hryhorov wrote on Telegram, adding that Russia used drones and missiles.<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian Air Force posted on the social media platform that the Russian military attacked with 40 drones, and 33 of them were destroyed.<\/p>\n
Separately, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod, said a woman died in the area as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Defence in Moscow announced on Friday morning that 221 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted over 13 Russian regions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are on hold, the Kremlin has announced, accusing European countries of obstructing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[1111,47632,6178,32302,2000,299,1113,1114,2597,2821,12,770,285,332,7661,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-418988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-belarus","9":"tag-border-disputes","10":"tag-conflict","11":"tag-drone-strikes","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-latvia","15":"tag-lithuania","16":"tag-military","17":"tag-nato","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-poland","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-russia","22":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","23":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115192509647869825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}