Russia Urges Poland to Reopen Border With Belarus

Russia called on Poland to reopen its border with Belarus with Moscow's close ally, naming the border closure as “frastructural” and warning consequences.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the day before, announced the closure of the Belarusn border by 00 o'clock on September 12th, in response to Moscow's joint military exercises with Minsk.

“We urge Warsaw to review the consequences of these destructive steps and reconsider its decision as soon as possible”, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said through a statement on September 11th.

The closure of the border is becoming “to justify the policy of further escalation of tensions in Central Europe”, she added.

NATO members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia are on high alert due to massive military exercises expected to be held. Tusk has said these exercises are designed to simulate the invasion of the Suvakki Corridor a strategically important area in Poland.

The Zapad exercise is usually held every four years. But this exercise will be held this year for the first time since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine over three years ago. The exercise will be held until 16 September.

Belarus had said in January that 13,000 troops would be involved in the exercise, but in May announced that the number would be halved.

Zakharova said Varshava had gone through “demonstrateively” the gestures of the good “volunteer” from Moscow and Minsk to move the exercise away from the Polish border and reduce the number of military personnel participating in it.

Also, these exercises come after Poland said Wednesday it brought down up to four fears from 19 Russian drones stepping into its airspace.

Moscow later said it was conducting a major attack west of Ukraine and that it had not planned to attack any targets within Poland. / REL