Poland reopens border one week after Russian-Belarussian manoeuvres
Poland is to reopen its border with Belarus from midnight on Wednesday following the conclusion of the Zapad 2025 Russian-Belarussian joint military exercise in Belarus, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced.
Traffic in both directions will be permitted from 00:00 (2200 GMT), after the security situation had eased, he said, according to a report by the PAP news agency.
Poland closed the border on September 12 and kept it closed past the end of the exercise on September 16.
According to opposition politicians in Warsaw, the closure affected many Polish truck drivers who were stuck in Belarus. Chinese exports to the European Union along the rail route through Belarus were also hit.
The Russian Ministry of Defence described the Zapad 2025 (West 2025) drills as aimed at improving interaction between military units. Deployment of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik medium-range missile was also tested.
While Moscow did not release information on numbers, Lithuanian estimates put the total at around 30,000 soldiers, including around 8,000 in Belarus and up to 4,000 in the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.