“But Belarus can't refuse because it would be very disloyal to Russia.” If it wasn't already clear that the Zapad exercises were a thinly veiled preparation for a conflict with Nato, their supposed “aggressor countries”—called Lubeniya, Veishnoriya and Vesbasriya—were located roughly where Lithuania, Latvia and Poland are on a map shown at the Russian defence ministry briefing. On Thursday Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters, “We reject complaints of these exercises not being transparent.” He accused the West of “whipping up hysteria” as a “provocation.”

In Latvia, Foreign Minister ­Edgars Rinkevics told The Post that the country’s leaders are “not panicking” but are being “cautious” because “what we are seeing is that the exercises are of an offensive nature, they are exercising access and area denial, they are exercising against at least four NATO member states under the pretext that they are fighting [separatists].”

NATO, which has been conducting its own exercises in Europe this summer, has stationed four battalions — including U.S. troops — in the Baltic states and Poland.
Russia and Belarus begin a six-day joint strategic military exercise inside Belarus and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast. The military exercise simulates war against the fictional state of Veyshnoria. According to the Defence Ministry of Belarus, fewer than 13,000 personnel will be taking part in the exercise; however, Western analysts believe the total number will range from 60,000 to 100,000.