Russia Exploits Belarusian Airspace for Coordinated Drone Strikes on Ukraine
Russian forces have launched a coordinated drone attack against Ukraine by routing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) through Belarusian airspace, once again drawing attention to Minsk’s ambiguous role in the ongoing war.
The Gaze reports on this with reference to Militarnyi.
According to independent military outlets and eyewitness accounts from border communities, multiple Shahed-type kamikaze drones were observed flying across Belarus on July 12 before veering south into Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region during the massive overnight drone and missile attack on Ukraine.
Video footage captured along the Slavgorod highway clearly shows at least one drone in flight, confirming the use of Belarus as a staging corridor.
Observers noted that three UAVs flew uninterrupted through Belarusian territory, evading detection for over five minutes before descending toward their targets inside Ukraine.
The incident marks yet another case in which Belarusian airspace has been used to facilitate Russian aggression, with no official response from Minsk as of publication.
While Belarus has occasionally acted to intercept these drones, as seen in an August 2024 incident when its air force reportedly shot down a loitering UAV over the Yelsk district, such responses remain rare.
In most cases, drones cross the border and proceed unchallenged, raising questions about Belarus’s air defense posture and strategic alignment.
This pattern of passive facilitation contrasts with previous Ukrainian efforts to counter drone attacks through advanced electronic warfare.
Kyiv’s forces have on several occasions succeeded in diverting Russian drones off-course, even steering them back into Russian or Belarusian territory using signal interference and spoofed coordinates.
The July 12 attack underscores the strategic exploitation of regional airspace and highlights Belarus’s ongoing role, whether complicit or permissive, in enabling Russia’s long-range strike capabilities.
As The Gaze reported earlier, Lithuania’s Ministry of Defense has confirmed that a Russian-made “Gerbera” drone entered the country’s airspace from Belarus on July 10.