About 13,000 Polish soldiers are expected to take part in joint exercises between Poland and NATO allies in southeastern Poland, which will begin on Friday, Polskie Radio reports.

The military exercise takes place every three years and will focus on defense and deterrence measures in the Baltic Sea region. The training will last until May 26, Kyiv Independent writes.

Representatives of the USA, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Turkey are participating in the Anakonda-23 exercise and the coordinated Defender-23 and Aurora 23 exercises, which will take place outside Poland.

The exercises will involve M1A1 Abrams tanks, Krabs and K9 self-propelled howitzers, as well as Norwegian NSM anti-ship missiles.

Preparations for the Anaconda exercises began as early as 2021, but a large-scale invasion of Russia would present new challenges to NATO partners, who had to make changes to their maneuvers, RFE/RL reports.