After the relays in Belarus are turned off, Russian drone attacks will not stop, but the Russian military will lose the ability to control them in real time.
This was stated by Advisor to the Minister of Defense Serhiy Beskrestnov ("Flash") in an interview with Suspilne.
According to Beskrestnov, after the relays are turned off, Russia will be able to launch drones only at pre-programmed GPS coordinates. At the same time, the Russians will not be able to remotely change the route of the drones, search for Ukrainian air defenses, and determine safe routes for new attacks online.
Flash says that back in the fall of 2025, Russia installed four repeaters in Belarus that allowed it to control “Shahed” and “Gerbera” drones via radio. They provided communications for attacks on Kyiv and the western regions of Ukraine, where the signal from Russian territory did not reach.
Beskrestnov said that Ukraine had previously destroyed this network, after which it was out of service for a while. Later, the Russians restored the repeaters, and their operation was recorded again during massive attacks on western Ukraine.
According to the advisor to the Minister of Defense, the equipment can be reinstalled in a short time. If Russia deploys such a network again, Ukraine will try to detect and destroy these objects.
In addition, Flash stated that one repeater helps control at a distance of up to 200 km. This can be any tower on which a transceiver connected to the Internet and an antenna are installed in the direction of Ukraine.
Beskrestnov also reported that Russian drones are equipped with modems with SIM cards from a Russian operator. When flying near the border, they can connect to the networks of Belarusian mobile operators and transmit data from the territory of Ukraine.
According to him, Belarusian operators can restrict the operation of such SIM cards, but they have not done so yet. The Russians use repeaters because the shortest distance to Kyiv for radio control from the territory of the Russian Federation is 210 km, and from Belarus — 140 km.
- Transponders for Russian strike drones have stopped operating in Belarus since June 22, President Volodymyr Zelensky reported. On June 19, Zelensky gave self-proclaimed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko a week to remove the transponders.
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