Sept. 15 (UPI) -- The Russian military put on a show of force Monday in a training exercise intended to prepare for a future war with Western countries.
The exercises included about 7,000 troops in locations in Belarus, a neighboring country aligned with the Kremlin, as well as in Russia's Kaliningrad enclave, which is sandwiched between NATO-members Poland and Lithuania, according to reports from western media invited to witness the event.
The Zapad military drills are meant to simulate an attack by Western countries. Zapad, which means "West" in Russian, are normally routine drills and were last held in 2021, just before Russia invaded Ukraine.
The most recent drills took place amid heightened worries the conflict will spill into neighboring countries and comes weeks after Polish forces and their NATO allies shot down a large number of drones that had entered the country's airspace.
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