MINSK, August 8. /TASS/. The venue for holding the Zapad 2025 Russia-Belarus strategic drills has been moved deep inside Belarus to avoid accusations of the intention to cut off the Suwalki corridor, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview with Time magazine shown on the republic’s First News TV channel on Friday.
The announcements about the plans to hold these drills caused an uproar, especially in Poland and the Baltic states, the Belarusian leader said.
"The Poles, Lithuanians and Latvians get into a frenzy as they warn that the troops [participating in the drills] would allegedly advance to Kaliningrad, cut off the Baltic states, seize the three NATO countries and so on," Lukashenko said.
For this reason, the Belarusian leader went on to say, he had handed down an order to move the Zapad 2025 drills deep into the republic’s territory.
"We pursued one goal: not to give you the possibility to accuse us of preparing for cutting off the Suwalki corridor and seizing the three Baltic republics at the first stage and then Poland. This is complete nonsense," Lukashenko stressed.
Therefore, Belarus and Russia "have proved that they are not going to attack … at least countries of the eastern European Union - Poland, the Baltic states and, all the more so, Ukraine," he explained.
The Zapad 2025 Russia-Belarus joint strategic drills are set to take place in mid-September.