Russia Suspected of Reactivating Drone Relay Stations in Belarus for Precision Strikes

A jet-powered, camera-guided Russian Shahed drone struck a gas station in the Ukrainian city of Malyn on Wednesday morning, military technology expert and defense advisor Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov reported on July 15.

This raised concerns that Moscow is still utilizing signal relay stations inside Belarus to pilot long-range attacks.

The strike, which occurred in the Zhytomyr Oblast, exhibited flight behavior highly characteristic of manual, real-time camera control. According to radar data analyzed by Flash, the drone initially flew along the Belarusian border, navigated directly over a highway to the city of Korosten, and then tracked a railway line to Malyn before striking its target.

Beskrestnov noted that because Malyn is located approximately 260 kilometers from the Russian border, maintaining a direct radio control link over that distance is technically impossible. Furthermore, no other Russian drones were in the air at the time to serve as airborne signal repeaters, leaving a ground-based transmitter as the only viable technical explanation.

This technological constraint strongly points to the presence of ground-based signal repeaters situated on Belarusian territory. As explained by the defense advisor, the Russian military is highly motivated to strike targets in western Ukraine using real-time, manually guided drones, but cannot achieve the necessary signal range without active repeaters in Belarus.

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Flash warned that these repeaters are small and easily deployed, raising the possibility that Russian forces may have installed them secretly, without the explicit authorization or knowledge of the Belarusian government.

The attack in Malyn damaged local infrastructure and injured two civilians, illustrating the rising threat of Russia’s newly deployed jet-powered Shahed variants. To counter these high-precision strikes, Beskrestnov urged Belarusian officials to more closely monitor their domestic territory and airspace.

The suspect reactivation of these border transmitters follows a major diplomatic development in late June, when Belarus reportedly deactivated Russian drone guidance infrastructure and border-zone repeaters following a strict, seven-day ultimatum issued by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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