Poland deploys 40,000 troops to eastern Borders

Poland is deploying around 40,000 soldiers to its borders with Belarus and Russia as tensions escalate following a large-scale drone incursion on September 10. The troop buildup comes ahead of joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises, known as Zapad 2025, set to begin on September 12, with some drills staged near the Polish frontier.

The exercises have drawn heightened scrutiny in the wake of the September 10 incident, during which Polish and Dutch military aircraft shot down Russian drones. Zapad 2025 is expected to involve tens of thousands of troops, prompting Warsaw’s decision to reinforce its eastern defenses, Caliber.Az reports via Polish media. 

“Poland has been preparing for the Zapad 2025 maneuvers for many months,” Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk told Polsat News. “The Polish Army has conducted exercises in which over 30,000 Polish soldiers, as well as soldiers of the [NATO] alliance, took part in order to adequately respond. Let’s remember that Zapad 2025 is an offensive exercise.”

Tomczyk echoed concerns from other political leaders that the maneuvers could be a precursor to Russian aggression towards NATO and EU countries. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said earlier this week that “very aggressive scenarios” will be acted out by Russia and Belarus during the exercises, drawing parallels with drills held ahead of Russia’s invasions of Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Zapad could be “a cover” for an assault on countries further west. However, other allies suggest the 2025 exercises will be smaller than the last iteration in 2021, with Lithuania estimating around 30,000 troops will participate.

Ahead of the maneuvers, Poland announced on September 9 it would temporarily close border crossings with Belarus. Following the drone incident on September 10, Warsaw extended the closure “until further notice.”

Authorities have said that one of the exercises’ objectives is to rehearse an attack on the Suwałki Gap, a narrow strip of land connecting Poland and Lithuania, positioned between Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, long described as NATO’s “Achilles" heel.

By Sabina Mammadli