MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. At least 34,000 troops from Poland and other countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will participate in the Iron Defender-2025 military exercises, which Warsaw plans to hold in September in response to the joint Belarusian-Russian Zapad-2025 drill in Belarus.

"The defensive exercises will be conducted on land, in airspace, and in the Baltic Sea. They will involve approximately 34,000 soldiers from all branches of the Polish army and NATO allies, as well as around 600 articles of military equipment, which will jointly test their deterrence capabilities and ability to effectively defend Polish territory," the Polish military said in a statement on their official website. The drills will take place at training grounds in Ustka on the Baltic Sea, in Orzysz near the border with Russia’s Kaliningrad Region, and in Nowa Deba in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship close to the Ukrainian border.

Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz announced the plans for the biggest in years large-scale divisional exercises, conducted jointly with NATO, at the end of May 2025. As he explained, the drills are a direct response to the Zapad-2025 military exercises held by Russia and Belarus.