Overview
- Poland will shut all crossings with Belarus, including rail, at midnight Thursday before the Sapad-2025 exercises start on Friday and run through Tuesday.
- Prime Minister Donald Tusk says the maneuvers simulate the occupation of the Suwalki Gap, a narrow corridor linking NATO territory to the Baltic states.
- Polish and allied forces will hold concurrent exercises in Poland involving about 30,000 troops, according to the government.
- Tusk announced the arrest of a “Belarusian agent” in Poland and the expulsion of a Belarusian diplomat for allegedly supporting aggressive activities.
- Belarusian officials say the drills will practice the possible use of nuclear weapons and Russia’s Oreshnik hypersonic missiles, which Moscow plans to station in Belarus by year’s end.