Three Drones That Violated Border Destroyed in Belarus Since Start of Year — Lukyanovich

Since the beginning of this year, 107 violations of Belarus’s airspace and 72 cases of violations of the state border have been recorded. Three drones have been destroyed, said the commander of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces Andrei Lukyanovich.

“Our branch of the Armed Forces carries out combat tasks every day in peacetime. The confirmation of this is that in 2026 alone we recorded more than 100 (to be precise — 107) violations of the rules for the use of airspace and more than 70 (72 cases) violations of the state border. Our duty forces were forced to carry out combat use five times — this is the real work of the aviation duty forces and anti-aircraft missile troops. Three unmanned aerial vehicles that posed a threat were destroyed,” BelTA quoted Lukyanovich as saying.

The Air Force and Air Defense Forces are currently undergoing a snap combat readiness inspection on the orders of Aliaksandr Lukashenka. In the first stage, Yak-130 aircraft, Mi-35 helicopters and the Osa surface-to-air missile system were involved.

“We carried out a march, took up combat duty, strengthened the air defense system, and aviation performed operational flights to alternate airfields. The anti-aircraft missile troops also reinforced the air defense system, while the radio-technical troops deployed an additional number (as specified in the combat order) of mobile low-altitude groups in order to strengthen the low-altitude radar field and ensure control of the airspace,” Lukyanovich said.

The inspection was monitored by the state secretary of the Security Council Aliaksandr Valfovich. He stressed that the training tasks were carried out as far as possible from the borders, the Defense Ministry reported.

According to Valfovich, the inspection alarmed Poland and Lithuania, which yesterday scrambled their reconnaissance aircraft.

“Although we did not direct any threat toward neighboring countries and did not set such a goal. In general, we also tried not to carry out training tasks in the border area. We conducted them deep inside the country, mostly in the eastern regions of our republic,” the Security Council secretary said.

In February, the Defense Ministry reported the use of aviation and anti-aircraft missile troops to destroy drones that had entered Belarusian airspace. The exact number of drones that flew into the country’s airspace was not specified. On February 26, at least five drones flew over Homiel. One of them was shot down.