They look like innocent TV transmitters or cellphone towers but are secretly guiding Russian attack drones to targets in Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian authorities.This is the alleged network of signal relay stations in Belarus that has become a focal point of tension between Kyiv and Minsk.At its heart is a modification to Russian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) enabling them to switch target mid-flight, becoming more difficult to predict and potentially more deadly. The UAVs are a development of the Iranian-designed Shahed drone, widely used by Russian forces to hit both civilian and military targets in Ukraine.
"These stations can provide the first line of drones with high-quality and reliable communication at a distance of up to 150 kilometers," Ukrainian military aviation and drone expert Anatoliy Khrapchynskiy told RFE/RL’s Belarus Service.Khrapchynskiy is deputy head of Piranha Tech, a Ukrainian company that specializes in anti-UAV systems. We’ll hear more from him later. But first, how did this start?Zelenskyy's UltimatumThe equipment made headlines following an ultimatum by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that hinted at Ukrainian military or covert action to remove it.Speaking at a news conference on June 19, Zelenskyy claimed Russia was using signal relay stations in Belarus to help steer their missiles at targets in Ukraine."What's the point of [Lukashenko] saying he doesn't want to be in the war? Let him remove this equipment, let him switch it off. I think a week will be enough for him to do that," he said, adding: "If he doesn't do it, we'll do it."The deadline for the ultimatum was June 26.On the early evening of June 24, Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported on its Telegram channel that Belarus had turned off the relay stations two days earlier, citing comments by Zelenskyy.But Zelenskyy added that it was not yet clear if the equipment had been dismantled, Suspilne said.Belarus has not made any response to Zelenskyy’s ultimatum and has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the transponders.The situation has underlined the fine line being walked by the country’s Kremlin-backed authoritarian ruler, Aleksandr Lukashenko, as he tries to avoid getting dragged into the war without upsetting Moscow.
