Poland closes its land border with Belarus after russian drones invaded Poland's airspace

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Poland gave a 7-day warning and has now closed Belarus off from access to its country as russia and belarus prepare to engage in ZAPAD 25 on Friday, the joint military exercises these two countries execute on Poland's doorstep..

Described as a permanent closure, accompanied by a build up of some 40,000 troops invested in defending Poland from russian aggression, it's causing major upheaval for trade routes (China being especially affected), businesses and people who live fairly near the border who have families on the other side or need to travel across it for work or hospital appointments. It also affects those already trying to leave Belarus before trouble escalates. Given the Belarus government's actions supporting putin in the past, who can blame them?

The border is marked now by lines of thousands of lorries not able to cross and continue their delivery of goods (largely) imported from China as well as people hoping to cross into Poland to escape Belarus as things hot up. The goods can still be transported, but it means taking a far longer land-route and then sea/air depending on where they're headed. With the supply of gas in Belarus becoming increasingly disrupted and more expensive, this creates a major headache for China. The Belarus population is asking when will the border crossings reopen and the uncertainty is reinforcing price-rise issues in their country. While russia is still so blithely bombing Ukraine and testing NATO's reactions by stunts such as invading the Polish airspace, these crossings are not likely to reopen any time soon. NATO has closed airspace along the russian-belarus borders because of the russian drones incident and for the duration of the war games. Poland had already closed its airspace but is now joined by Latvia in a show of support and strength.

"Russian unmanned aerial vehicles in NATO airspace are a warning signal, and we must do everything possible to prevent an escalation of drone attacks," the minister said in a statement published by the Defense Ministry.

"The closure of the Latvian airspace zone will allow us to fully control the restricted airspace, facilitate the detection of unauthorized flying objects, free up the restricted zone for NATO Baltic Air Policing mission fighter jets and our air defense," Spruds said.

The Latvian announcement came hours after Poland's Operational Command issued notification on Thursday of the closure of Polish airspace all along the 260-mile border with Belarus. Airspace was closed from late on Wednesday and will remain so until Dec. 9, the command said in a statement posted to X.

Last month, neighboring Lithuania declared a no-fly zone along its 56-mile border with Belarus from Aug. 14 until Oct. 1, with the option to extend the closure if deemed necessary. The restrictions there go up to 12,000 feet, meaning high-flying commercial aircraft can still transit the airspace.

Vilnius took the decision after two Russian Gerbera drones -- one of which was carrying 4.4 pounds of explosives -- crashed on Lithuanian territory having flown in from Belarus. Lithuania's Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene told ABC News that Lithuania is "ready" to shoot down any drones that enter the no-fly zone.

https://abcnews.go.com/Internationa...ssia-belarus-borders-after/story?id=125471072