UPDATE 1-Russia practices cruise missile launches over Barents Sea in 'Zapad' drills with Belarus

Russian Tu-160 strategic bomber planes performed combat training missions over the Barents Sea during joint military exercises with Belarus and practiced launching cruise missiles, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

Russia and Belarus are wrapping up five days of war games, codenamed Zapad (West), in a show of force that they say is designed to test combat readiness. The drills - taking place days after Polish and NATO forces shot down Russian drones that entered Polish airspace - have unnerved some neighbouring countries. Poland has temporarily closed its border with Belarus as a precaution.

WHAT DO THE ZAPAD EXERCISES INVOLVE? The Russian defence ministry said the nuclear-capable bomber planes flew over neutral waters of the Barents Sea, north of Scandinavia, for about four hours, escorted by MiG-31 fighter jets.

"During the combat training mission, the crews practiced tactical launches of air-launched cruise missiles at critical targets of a mock enemy," it said. Belarusian Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin was due to observe another part of the Zapad exercise at a training ground in Russia on Tuesday, his ministry said.

It did not specify the nature of that element, but said it would take place in "conditions as close as possible to combat". Belarus is a close ally of Russia and has supported its war in Ukraine, although without committing its own troops to the fighting. Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to station tactical nuclear missiles in Belarus.

U.S. President Donald Trump has begun cultivating closer ties with Lukashenko, long treated as a pariah by the West, and relaxed some sanctions on Belarus last week in return for the release of 52 prisoners including political opponents of the veteran leader. In a sign of the warming in relations, U.S. military officers

observed part of the Zapad exercise in Belarus on Monday.

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