WARSAW, Poland — As Russia and Belarus launch the “Zapad 2025” joint military drill this month, eyeing buildups of military forces along NATO’s eastern borders and direct simulations of attacks on Poland and the Baltic States, the four Eastern European allies are gearing up for the drills of their own in anticipation of low-intensity attacks against their infrastructure.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland plan to respond by holding their own training for some 40,000 troops to mirror “Zapad 2025.”

This year’s edition of the exercise is scheduled for Sept. 12-16. Russia used the previous “Zapad,” or “West” in Russian, training in September 2021 to deploy the forces that eventually invaded Ukraine in February the following year.

The joint exercise usually takes place every two years

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