Poland closes its borders with Belarus on Thursday at midnight local time, due to Zapad military exercises in Belarus, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday, according to Reuters.

It is noted that for the war Zapad Exercises 2025 is preparing the Chimney Together with his ally, Belarus, the first from the total invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, creating strong concern in neighboring countries about what his real intentions are and whether he is preparing for a possible conflict with NATO forces, according to Politico.

Exercises, which will take place from September 12 to 16, will include some maneuvers near Poland and Lithuania.

“We have to take the exercises close to NATO and the EU border seriously. Both neighboring countries and NATO itself face the maximum seriousness.”said Lithuanian Deputy Defense Minister Thomas Godliauskas. “Lithuania and our allies are prepared, united and will closely watch developments, ready to react if needed.”

In response, NATO countries bordered by Russia are conducting their own war exercises. Ten NATO countries will participate in the exercise Tarassis 25 of northern Europe, while Lithuania will carry out its own national defense exercise Thunder Strike.

Poland is organizing this week exercise Iron Defender-25 where 30,000 soldiers will participate.

“Poland will respond to Zapad 2025 exercises … in the right way from the Polish side”the Deputy Minister of Defense of the country told Polish RMF.

Russia has been conducting Zapad exercises about every four years since 1999. Although officially defensive exercises, 2009 simulated a nuclear attack on Warsaw and the 2021 exercise led to a massive concentration of forces in Belarus, which were used to attack months later.

With the concern in NATO that Russia could attack a member of the Alliance as the war in Ukraine continues – probably in Baltic countries – the alliance is watching Russian moves very carefully to see if Zapad is giving indications of a future attack, Vilnius.

“NATO is closely monitoring Russia’s military activity. We do not see any immediate military threat against any NATO ally. Nevertheless, we remain alert ‘, The alliance said in a written comment.

During the Russian and Belarusian troops exercise they will be practiced in the design of the use of Oreshnik missile systems with nuclear capacity.

Russia is also conducting three more separate exercises with countries of the Agency of the Collective Security Treaty (OSSA), concealing the actual size of the exercises, the German Foreign Relations Council said.

Ossssa includes Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

“The scenarios of these exercises are expected to indicate the kind of war for which Russia is preparing against the West.”he said.

The Zapad exercise will cover the military areas of Moscow and Leningrad, Russia, the Kaliningrad enclave, the Arctic region, the seas of the Baltic and Barents and Belarus.

Some exercises – near the village of Gouza in Belarus and Dobrovolsk of Kaliningrad – will take place just a few tens of kilometers from Poland and Lithuania. Troops will also be deployed on either side of Kfuvalki, the 70 -kilometer -long corridor between Belarus and Kaliningrad, which is widely regarded as one of Europe’s most vulnerable defensive points.

Lithuania Military Information Services await that Up to 30,000 soldiers will participate in Zapad exercise – much less than in 2021, where about 200,000 soldiers participated. This is far from what Russia would need to attack a NATO member, especially as the war in Ukraine is ongoing, Janeliūnas said.

However, Moscow could use the exercises to test NATO’s reaction to challenges such as airspace violations, cyberattacks or even sabotage of political infrastructure – evaluating how quickly the allies are reacting, though such movements.

“It is quite likely some signals that coincide can be interpreted as a real attack on NATO countries.”said Janeliūnas. “One has to understand a simple fact: during military exercises, when the weapons are ready … it is often difficult to distinguish the simulation of real military action.” ended up.