Belarus Enables Russian Drone Strikes on Ukraine and Extends Threat to NATO

The drone intercepted by NATO over Lithuania overnight Tuesday had originated from neighboring Belarus, according to Vilnius.

The unmanned aircraft flew over Lentvaris near the Lithuanian capital before being downed close to the village of Pratkūnai, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre, confirmed. It marked the first instance of a drone being shot down over Lithuanian soil.

The incident refocuses attention on Minsk’s role—not only in assisting Russian drone assaults on Ukraine but also as a source of drone threats to NATO territory.

The incursion followed closely on Ukrainian officials’ statements that Russia was exploiting Belarusian mobile networks and signal repeaters to support Shahed-type drone attacks on western Ukraine.

Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, noted that the flight paths of Russian drones during a mass Saturday attack suggested reliance on cross-border mobile networks. “If we look at the movement of jet-powered and conventional ‘Shaheds,’ they stay close to the border with Belarus,” Beskrestnov said. He believes the drones likely accessed Belarusian commercial LTE networks.

On Monday, Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service separately stated that recent Russian strikes on the western regions of Rivne, Volyn, and Lviv had been supported by communications infrastructure inside Belarus. “The air assets launched by Russia were fed with a signal through repeaters that were also located precisely on the territory of this country,” border guard spokesperson Andrii Demchenko said.

These claims indicate Russia is again leveraging communications infrastructure within Belarus to sustain its drone campaign against Ukraine, months after Kyiv demanded the equipment be shut down.

Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Oleh Ivashchenko said last week that Kyiv had identified six repeater stations in Belarus used by Russian forces to relay video streams from strike drones, and that some of the equipment had resumed operating.

The equipment has been a point of contention between Kyiv and Minsk since June, when Zelenskyy gave Belarus a week to dismantle or switch off the Russian-installed repeaters, warning that Ukraine would otherwise act unilaterally.

Days later, Zelenskyy said the repeaters had ceased operating on 22 June, though it remained unclear whether they had actually been removed.

The shutdown proved temporary. By the end of June, Ukrainian military officials said the equipment had not been dismantled and that at least one repeater had been switched back on.

Their apparent reactivation gives Russia another means of maintaining communications with strike drones operating near Ukraine’s northern and western borders, including areas close to NATO territory.

Russia has increasingly relied on a combination of mobile networks and radio technology to maintain links with its long-range strike drones and overcome Ukrainian electronic warfare.

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