Representative of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Andrii Demchenko said that the attack by Russian drones on the Yahodyn border crossing on the Ukrainian-Polish border was carried out with Belarusian support. According to him, Belarus has again switched on repeaters that help Russian drones receive a signal and penetrate deeper into Ukrainian territory, Ukrinform reports.
“At present, Belarus is actively assisting Russia in shelling Ukrainian territory. This includes the use of repeaters that are switched on in Belarus and amplify the signal for Russian Shahed and Gerbera drones, which, after entering from Russian territory, then stay close to the border with Belarus in order to receive such a signal and be able to penetrate deeper into Ukrainian territory, in particular into the western regions: Rivne, Volyn and Lviv. And the attack, for example, in the direction of the Yahodyn border crossing was also carried out with the support of Belarus,” the head of the State Border Guard Service said.
Demchenko noted that earlier, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that helping Russia through the use of repeaters was unacceptable, Belarus had switched them off.
“Now they have switched them on again,” he said.
He said that despite the Belarusian direction remaining a threat, “there is currently no buildup of any strike force located near our border and ready to launch an invasion.”
In June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave Aliaksandr Lukashenka one week to switch off repeaters for Russian drones, warning that otherwise Ukraine would destroy them itself. A few days later, Zelenskyy said the repeaters had been switched off. On June 30, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Belarus had switched on one repeater but would not do so again.
In mid-July, Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, suggested that Russia could continue to use repeaters in Belarus from time to time to direct attack drones.
Last week, Oleh Ivashchenko, head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, said that repeaters in Belarus had resumed operating.
