”We urge Warsaw to consider the consequences that such a destructive step would imply and try to review its decision as soon as possible”, says Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zacharova in a statement.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Tuesday that Poland intends to close the border with Belarus from midnight on September 12, as a response to an upcoming military exercise between the allied Russia and Belarus to be held on September 12-16.
Zacharova says that the decision was made to ”justify a policy that further escalates tensions in Central Europe”.
Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, on NATO's eastern flank, are on high alert ahead of the extensive military exercise. According to Tusk, among other things, an occupation of the strategically important Suwalki Corridor – a strip of land in northeastern Poland and southern Lithuania – will be simulated during the exercise.
In January, Belarus announced that 13,000 soldiers would participate in the exercise, but in May, they meant that it would be about half as many. Zacharova says in the statement that from Warsaw's side, they have ”demonstratively” ignored the ”friendly gestures” from Moscow and Minsk, which concerned reducing the number of participating soldiers and also moving the exercise further away from the Polish border.
