Kremlin dismisses neighbours' 'emotional overload' over drills

The Kremlin has dismissed Western fears about the joint Russia-Belarus military exercise Zapad 2025, which began on Friday.

According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, under normal circumstances neighbouring states would simply observe each other's military exercises, state news agency TASS reported.

"But now Western Europe is taking a hostile stance towards us, and that is leading to emotional overload in these countries," he said.

Peskov referred in particular to the decision by neighbour Poland to close its border with Belarus because of the manoeuvres.

Russia has never threatened other countries, the Kremlin spokesman said.

Countries neighbouring Russia and Belarus, some of which belong to the European Union and the NATO military alliance, have been rattled by the incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace for the first time earlier this week.