Germany is leading a military exercise along with other European countries in response to the “Zapad 2025” military drills carried out by Russia and Belarus as tensions simmer on the edge of NATO’s eastern border.
Approximately 8,000 troops and equipment from 14 countries including all the NATO allies with Baltic Sea coasts as well as the U.S., U.K., France and Canada are being moved to Lithuania in anticipation of low intensity infrastructure attacks.
Russia’s military exercises have typically taken place every two years, but the Kremlin canceled the event in 2023 due to the Ukrainian war. This year’s exercises are expected to include nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles. Russia states up to 30,000 are expected to participate, including 6,000-8,000 stationed in Belarus.
Gen. Raimundas Vaikšnoras, the Lithuanian chief of defense, has announced that during “Zapad 2025” the three Baltic States — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — will join forces with Poland to respond by launching an exercise for around 40,000 allied troops in the region.
This year’s edition of the “Zapad” exercise is scheduled for Sept. 12-16. Russia used the previous “Zapad” — “West” in Russian — training in September 2021 to deploy the forces that eventually invaded Ukraine in February the following year.
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