![\"Russia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2560.jpg\")
Russia and Belarus hold joint military drill as regional tensions rise \u2013\u00a0video report<\/p>\n
\u201cThe exercises, in our view, are unprecedentedly open. We pose no threat to anyone and stand for building a constructive and pragmatic dialogue,\u201d Valery Revenko, a senior Belarusian military official, told reporters after the drills.<\/p>\n
He added that the drills, due to end on Tuesday, had been scaled down to highlight their defensive nature and were held further from Nato\u2019s borders than originally planned, in what he described as an effort to reduce tensions in eastern Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even so, western capitals will be watching closely, mindful that Zapad-2021 gave Vladimir Putin cover to move large formations of troops and equipment westward \u2013 many of which, months later, took part in the invasion of Ukraine<\/a>, including from Belarusian territory.<\/p>\n The exercises also underscored a growing rift between Europe and Washington in their approaches to the Kremlin.<\/p>\n An operator prepares a drone at a training ground during the joint Russia-Belarus Zapad-2025 military drills near Borisov, Belarus on 15 September. Photograph: Ramil Sitdikov\/ReutersRussian and Belarusian flags fly at the training ground. Photograph: Ramil Sitdikov\/Reuters<\/p>\n In a surprise visit, two US military officials attended Monday\u2019s war games \u2013 the first known visit by American representatives to a Russian military drill in years.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best viewing seats will be provided for you,\u201d the Belarusian defence minister, Viktor Khrenin, told one of the two attache, named as Bryan Shoupe, before the drills.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you for the invitation,\u201d said Shoupe, shaking hands with Khrenin.<\/p>\n The US officials, who declined to speak to the Guardian, stood out among military representatives from Russia\u2019s traditional allies \u2013 authoritarian states in Africa, as well as China, Myanmar and others.<\/p>\n But their presence, swiftly seized on by Russian and Belarusian state media to suggest the drills carried global weight, is likely to heighten European fears<\/a> that Donald Trump is unwilling to take a hard line on Moscow or further isolate the Russian leader.<\/p>\n Amid that uncertainty over Washington\u2019s resolve, Poland has responded to the drills by deploying up to 40,000 soldiers to its border with Belarus, while European allies have sent additional<\/a> jets to patrol against possible Russian drone incursions.<\/p>\n Russian troops load an Iskander missile on to a mobile launcher during Zapad-2025 at an undisclosed location in the Kaliningrad region of Russia. Photograph: APA Belarusian Mi-35 attack helicopter flies during the military drills near Borisov. Photograph: Ramil Sitdikov\/Reuters<\/p>\n Warsaw has also closed its border with Belarus for an indefinite period, dealing a painful economic blow to Alexander Lukashenko<\/a>, who depends on the route for the transit of Chinese and Russian goods. The move provoked anger in Moscow, which vowed to retaliate.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Russian government has asked us publicly to reconsider. Well, we would like the Russian government to reconsider sending arsonists and drones into Poland,\u201d Poland\u2019s foreign minister, Rados\u0142aw Sikorski, told the Guardian in an interview in Kyiv on Saturday.<\/p>\n The Zapad-2025 drills are a fraction of the scale of Zapad-2021, which involved up to 200,000 Russian personnel and is now regarded as one of the stress-tests for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n According to the Belarusian defence ministry, about 1,000 Russian troops were taking part alongside 7,000 Belarusian forces \u2013 a stark illustration of Moscow\u2019s manpower shortage after the heavy toll of its war in Ukraine. On Monday, only a handful of Russian soldiers were visible on the training grounds.<\/p>\n Konrad Muzyka, a military analyst with Rochan Consulting in Poland, said it was difficult to draw firm conclusions from this year\u2019s Zapad drills, as Belarus and Russia had released less information than usual.<\/p>\n \u201cOne scenario is that Russia doesn\u2019t really have the time to do a proper Zapad exercise this year, with most of its forces engaged in Ukraine,\u201d Muzyka said.<\/p>\n But he added that another explanation could be that the sides wanted to \u201cobfuscate what\u2019s happening in Belarus and the scenarios they are practising\u201d.<\/p>\n Belarus\u2019s defence minister, Viktor Khrenin, at Zapad-2025. Photograph: Ramil Sitdikov\/ReutersRussia\u2019s deputy defence minister, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov. Photograph: Ramil Sitdikov\/Reuters<\/p>\n Belarus has been a crucial ally for Russia during the invasion of Ukraine, offering its territory as a launchpad for Moscow\u2019s initial thrust from the north in February 2022 and supplying the Russian army with clothing, gear and equipment.<\/p>\n Lukashenko, however, has resisted Kremlin pressure to send his own troops into the conflict \u2013 a step that would be deeply unpopular with both the army and the wider population.<\/p>\n Still, Belarus\u2019s military has become ever more entwined with Moscow\u2019s.<\/p>\n A sweeping security treaty signed in December 2024 further deepened that integration and placed Minsk under Russia\u2019s nuclear umbrella. Lukashenko has since announced that Russia\u2019s Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile will be deployed in Belarus this year.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could say the Belarusian armed forces are an extension of Russia\u2019s western military district, and you wouldn\u2019t be far from the truth. They cooperate at every level \u2013 tactical, operational, strategic. Belarus is essentially a forward-deployed logistics base for Russian forces,\u201d said Muzyka.<\/p>\n Military analysts cautioned that it was highly unlikely that Belarus would ever join the fighting in Ukraine, or that Moscow would use its territory to launch a renewed push into Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u201cUkraine has heavily fortified and mined all possible invasion avenues from Belarus,\u201d said Aleksander Alesin, a military analyst in Minsk.<\/p>\n \u201cThe element of surprise is gone. Meanwhile, Russia\u2019s reserves are stretched out,\u201d Alesin added.<\/p>\n For Lukashenko, the exercises come at a delicate moment. Well-practised at hedging between Moscow and the west, the Belarusian leader\u2019s brutal crackdown<\/a> on dissent after the rigged 2020 elections has left him a pariah in Europe and pushed him into an increasingly vassal-like relationship with Russia.<\/p>\n Sensing a political opportunity, he has in recent months made fresh overtures to Trump\u2019s administration, casting himself as a key channel between Washington and Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n