In Belarus, joint Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2025 exercises were held from September 12 to 16. Amid the drills, the authors of the Telegram channel Nevolfovich published a video on September 12 showing tanks and military equipment allegedly headed for the Polish-Belarusian border.
“NATO equipment continues to concentrate near the western borders of the Union State. For the West, the Belarusian-Russian exercise is just a convenient pretext for provocations and for pumping the region with NATO troops and equipment. First, NATO drove armored vehicles and artillery to our borders under the pretext of fighting migrants. Now the pretext is the planned Belarusian-Russian exercise. Moreover, this time the exercise is scaled down and held deeper inside the country,” the post said.
NATO did strengthen defenses on the eastern flank, but not because of the Russian-Belarusian exercises — it was in response to airspace violations in Poland and drone attacks on the night of September 10. We have also debunked a related fake recently. Two days later, NATO’s press service announced that aircraft and air defense systems would be deployed to reinforce the border. There was no mention of moving tanks or other equipment.
The WTF team determined when the video posted on the Telegram channel Nevolfovich was actually filmed. It appeared on TikTok on August 10, 2025, with the caption “Polish Army during the 2025 parade rehearsal.” The video most likely shows a rehearsal for Polish Armed Forces Day. That means it was filmed at least a month earlier and cannot depict equipment being moved to the Belarusian border during the Zapad-2025 exercises.