Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 18, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Add as preferred source on GooglePoland reports increased drone activity near its Belarus border, maintaining a tense situation despite the end of Zapad drills.
WARSAW (Reuters) -Poland observed more drone activity near its border with Belarus during the night, the government said on Thursday, after closing the frontier ahead of Minsk's military drills with ally Russia.
NATO alliance and EU member Poland's concerns about the "Zapad" (West) war games were reinforced when some 21 Russian drones entered its airspace on the night of September 9-10.
Asked why the border was still closed given that the Zapad exercises had finished, Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said Poland would reopen it when safe to do so.
"Last night the Border Guard observed increased activity by Belarusian and Russian drones attempting to cross Polish airspace," he said. "It's clear that the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border remains very, very tense."
Kierwinski did not give further details. An Interior Ministry spokesperson said there was no Polish intervention or attempt to shoot down drones.
Belarus and Russia have strengthened ties during Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, with Minsk allowing Moscow to send troops in via its territory. Poland has been one of Ukraine's biggest backers in the conflict.
There are six road border crossings between Poland and Belarus, four of which Warsaw had already closed due to long-running frictions with Minsk.
Three rail border crossings for freight were also closed.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
Poland closed its border ahead of Minsk's military drills, specifically the Zapad war games, due to security concerns.
The Border Guard observed increased activity by Belarusian and Russian drones attempting to cross Polish airspace.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski stated that Poland would reopen the border when it is safe to do so.
There are six road border crossings between Poland and Belarus, four of which have been closed due to ongoing frictions.
Belarus and Russia have strengthened ties during Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, with Belarus allowing Russian troops to be stationed on its territory.
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