Poland is to reopen its border with Belarus from midnight on Wednesday following the conclusion of the Zapad 2025 Russian-Belarussian joint military exercise in Belarus, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced.

Traffic in both directions will be permitted from 00:00 (2200 GMT), after the security situation had eased, he said, according to a report by the PAP news agency.

Poland closed the border on September 12 and kept it closed past the end of the exercise on September 16.

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According to opposition politicians in Warsaw, the closure affected many Polish truck drivers who were stuck in Belarus. Chinese exports to the European Union along the rail route through Belarus were also hit.

The Russian Ministry of Defence described the Zapad 2025 (West 2025) drills as aimed at improving interaction between military units. Deployment of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik medium-range missile was also tested.

While Moscow did not release information on numbers, Lithuanian estimates put the total at around 30,000 soldiers, including around 8,000 in Belarus and up to 4,000 in the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.

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Poland will reopen its border with Belarus at midnight on Thursday morning, ending a nearly two-week closure, according to Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The Polish government closed all its border crossings with Belarus on 12 September in response to the large-scale military exercises conducted by the Belarusian and Russian forces, known as Zapad 2025.

The war games followed an unprecedented incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace, putting NATO allies on high alert that Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine could spill over into other countries.

“The conclusion of these exercises reduces — although I can’t say eliminates — various threats, and taking into account the economic interests of Polish carriers and railways, we concluded that this measure has served its purpose,” Tusk told the government on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin inspects weapons and equipment during his visit to the Zapad 2024 military drills in Nizhny Novgorod, 16 September, 2025 AP Photo

However, if tensions increase, he said “we will not hesitate and we will make appropriate decisions.”

Poland’s PM said the interior minister would issue a regulation to reopen road and rail crossings with Belarus.

Last week, the European Commission said it was monitoring the possible economic impact caused by the border closure, which has effectively shut down a railway trade route between the bloc and China.

The railway closure reportedly affects an annual €25 billion in goods between the EU and China.

The figure represents a tiny fraction of the €732 billion in goods exchanged between the two sides in 2024, mostly by sea.

Poland has massively restricted road traffic with Belarus since the summer of 2021, having accused Minsk of pushing migrants over its border.

That has prompted Warsaw to install high-tech steel fences, deploy the army and create a no-go buffer zone.

Poland plans to reopen border checkpoints with Belarus this week. They were closed due to the Zapad-2025 military exercises, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, according to Polsat News .

According to Tusk, the decision on the “reopening of border crossings” on the border with Belarus was made jointly with Poland’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Marcin Kierwiński.

“Those that were closed in connection with the Zapad maneuvers and, understandably, with the growing threat and political instability and the actual situation on our borders, in our region,” he added.

Tusk stated that the decision will take effect at midnight on Thursday, September 25.

Poland closed the border with Belarus

Earlier, Tusk announced that Poland would close its borders with Belarus due to the joint Russian-Belarusian exercises Zapad-2025. These exercises were scheduled for the period from September 12 to 16 and took place on Belarusian territory, as well as at separate training grounds in Russia.

In Moscow, it was stated that Russia practiced possible provocations against NATO during the exercises. Moreover, the Kremlin later expanded them to the Kaliningrad region, which borders Poland to the south, Lithuania to the north, and East Prussia to the east.