Russia is again using relay stations deployed in Belarus to transmit video signals and maintain communications with drones. Oleh Ivashchenko, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, said this in an interview with The Times.
According to Ivashchenko, Russian forces use a network of towers and relay stations along the border with Ukraine to transmit video signals.
“These relay stations are located along the border, and we have identified six of them on the territory of Belarus,” the intelligence chief said.
“They temporarily stopped deploying them, but now we see that some relay stations are operating again. We have sufficient capabilities to deal with this,” he added.
It should be recalled that on June 19, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave Aliaksandr Lukashenka a week to shut down relay stations used by Russian drones, warning that otherwise Ukraine would destroy them itself. The Ukrainian leader later said that the relay stations had been switched off on June 22. On June 30, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Belarus had switched on one relay station but would not do so again.
In mid-July, Ukrainian Defense Minister’s adviser Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov said that Russia may continue to use relay stations on Belarusian territory from time to time to guide attack drones.
Ivashchenko also said that Ukrainian intelligence had information about the formation of a new airborne assault brigade in Belarus about 40 km from the Ukrainian border, but assessed that there was no immediate threat of a ground offensive from Belarus in the near future.
According to the Ukrainian side, if Russia maintains its current pace of military and economic losses, it could exhaust the resources needed to continue the war by 2028.
“Russia has enough military and economic resources for next year, but in our assessment, they will run out by 2028,” Ivashchenko said.
