Zelensky: If Belarus Does Not Want to Be Involved in War, It Must Remove Relay Stations for Russian Drones; Otherwise, Ukraine Will Do So

Relay stations for controlling Russian strike drones are located on Belarusian territory along the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. If Belarus truly does not want to be involved in the war, it must remove them; otherwise, “Ukraine will do it.”

This was stated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a joint press conference with Honduran President Nasri Asfour in Kyiv on June 19.

“When Mr. Lukashenko says he doesn’t want to be dragged into this war, he must be honest here—at least with his own people. Because it’s not just him who could be dragged into the war. His entire country could be dragged in—by Russia,” Volodymyr Zelensky said.

According to the president, in his opinion, one week will be enough for the self-proclaimed president of Belarus to remove this equipment if he truly does not want to participate in the war.

“Today, accordingly, he has repeaters on his towers. Russian repeaters, Belarusian repeaters. What difference does it make to us? On his territory, along two regions bordering Ukraine, there is equipment that directs fire at the Ukrainian population. Specifically, the civilian population. We don’t currently have such a strong front line there, between Ukraine and Belarus. Civilians are being killed there. There are repeaters on the relevant towers. Can he take that down? What’s the point of saying he doesn’t want to be at war? Let him take down that equipment. Let him shut it down. I think a week would be enough for him to do that. Why do I say a week? Because right now, our civilians are dying every day because of this. Children are being wounded. If he doesn’t do it, we will,” stated the President of Ukraine.

The President also accused Belarus of supplying petroleum products to the Russian army.

“We are doing everything we can to prevent the Russians from selling oil and supplying diesel and fuel to their army, because all of this is being used against us. Today, Belarus is one of the main suppliers to the Russian army. It is Lukashenko, it is Belarus. Can this be stopped? I am sure that he has the power to do so and that he is the one in control,” the president stated.

Drone control stations in Belarus

The fact that Russia is using Belarusian territory to control Shahed-type attack drones during attacks on Ukraine first became publicly known in January 2026.

In February, the international intelligence community InformNapalm, in collaboration with the Fenix cyber analytics center hacked the accounts of Russian military personnel and gained access to the monitoring systems used by drone operators.

Ukrainian hackers did not control the drones, but they observed the enemy’s actions and helped improve the effectiveness of Ukraine’s operational countermeasures.

Intelligence officers organized round-the-clock covert surveillance of the accounts, during which data was promptly transmitted to the Ukrainian Defense Forces. This significantly improved the situational awareness of Ukrainian defenders and enabled them to effectively shoot down and neutralize Russian drones.

As of March 2026, four such stations had been detected on Belarusian territory, and there were reports of Russian plans to deploy additional equipment.

In May, it became known that Russia was putting pressure on Aleksandr Lukashenko, demanding that Belarus join operations in the Kyiv-Chernihiv sector and operations against NATO countries.

Shortly thereafter, the self-proclaimed president of Belarus stated that an attack by Belarus on Ukrainian territory was supposedly not to be expected. At the same time, he emphasized that Belarus is “very vulnerable militarily if Ukraine begins to attack Belarus in the same way it is attacking Russia.”