The “Krasny Kamen” checkpoint on the Russian-Belarusian border suspended operations yesterday. It was reportedly due to a drone strike. What is surprising is not so much that heavy trucks were attacked on a stretch of road that has long been unsafe, but the silence from official Minsk, which has not yet responded to the incident in any way. What could be the reasons for the “silence mode” being activated, and what versions can be put forward in connection with another drone attack on this border crossing?
The Russian border checkpoint “Krasny Kamen” is located in the Bryansk region on the A-240 highway. On the Belarusian side is the M-10 highway and the “Selishche” checkpoint. Gomel is just a short distance away — about 45 kilometers.
It was at this border crossing that a Belarusian bus came under attack in early July this year while traveling from Minsk to Anapa. According to the Belarusian Health Ministry, three people were injured at the time — two drivers and a passenger. The “Krasny Kamen” checkpoint also suspended operations after the incident.
At the same time, if Belarusian television reports are to be believed, Belarusian trucks were also hit by a drone that time. “Three Belarusian trucks were also damaged, one of which burned down completely,” domestic propagandists claimed.
And in June this year, a Belarusian bus carrying children came under a drone attack in Russia’s Bryansk region while traveling to the Russian resort city of Gelendzhik. However, the incident did not occur directly at the border, but approximately halfway from the border toward Bryansk. Nevertheless, both incidents, whoever was behind them (and we will return to this issue later), indicate that the southern section of the Belarusian-Russian border has become an unsafe route.
Information about yesterday’s events is contradictory. As the Russian Telegram channel Shot reported, a Ukrainian FPV drone attacked one truck, and there were no casualties in the incident. This information was also reported by several Russian and Belarusian media outlets.
However, yesterday the Turkish news agency IHA published a video from the Russian-Belarusian border filmed, according to reports, by Turkish drivers. The footage shows a truck burning on the roadside, as well as a tractor unit with a damaged cab in a parking area near the border. In the video, a driver says that the strike hit not one but several trucks.
“They hit the vehicle, the vehicle is on fire. <…> A drone struck here right before our eyes. This is the third or fourth vehicle that was hit,” the driver says in the video.
According to IHA, there were deaths and injuries as a result of the strike — Iranian and Belarusian citizens.
Ensonhaber quotes two drivers who witnessed the strike. One says that drones hit two Iranian vehicles and then struck a Belarusian truck. He also claims that two Belarusian servicemen were injured.
“We were traveling from Russia through the Gomel border crossing. When we were processing our documents, the Ukrainian drone attack began. Two Iranian vehicles exploded completely. When we tried to escape, they hit the Belarusian vehicle traveling in front of us,” the driver claims.
According to another eyewitness, the attack began at around 7 a.m. while the drivers were sleeping.
If the Turkish drivers’ accounts are to be believed, yesterday’s drone attack in the Belarusian-Russian border area had serious consequences. That makes the prolonged silence from the relevant Belarusian authorities all the more surprising.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry and senior officials are silent. Propaganda outlets are silent. The website of the State Border Committee is silent about the incident at the border crossing and its closure.
And this is strange, given that the drone strike reportedly affected not only a Belarusian heavy truck but, according to eyewitnesses, also injured Belarusian servicemen.
BelTA is reporting on both the repairs at the Brest border crossing and the Latvian “Werewolf” operation on the border with our country. But there is silence about the “Krasny Kamen” and “Selishche” crossings.
Incidentally, the Iranian side is also silent. Yet only recently, Tehran loudly accused Kyiv of attacking a merchant vessel in the Caspian Sea. It threatened retaliatory strikes. Now it demands compensation from Kyiv for the incident. Yet in the case of the supposedly Iranian trucks, there is silence on IRNA as well.
Kyiv is also silent. There have been no confirmations or denials of the attack, although in the case of the Belarusian buses, the Ukrainian General Staff immediately called such claims “false and fabricated.” The commander of the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, is also silent. He often reports on his Facebook page about successful Ukrainian drone attacks on important targets.
Perhaps fear has magnified the incident, and the Turkish drivers saw something that did not actually happen? Or perhaps they embellished their accounts? There is only one burned truck in the video, while the damage to the tractor unit’s cab could have resulted from the strike on it. The casualties could also have been a frightened misperception.
So, let us accept the possibility that the Turkish drivers exaggerated what happened as one possible version. But let us not rule out others. After all, the parties affected may have no interest at all in drawing unnecessary attention to the incident. And each of them may have their own reasons for that.
Could the Ukrainian Armed Forces have struck heavy trucks on the Belarusian-Russian border? This possibility cannot be ruled out. Especially if we assume that the Iranian trucks were carrying cargo intended for the Russian army. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also explained the recent attack on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea by the transportation of “military cargo involving Iran.”
The Belarusian truck could simply have been hit by accident. Heavy trucks are packed closely together at parking areas and in border queues. In the event of a drone attack, an explosion is highly likely to damage neighboring tractor-trailers as well.
Information about Iran providing Russia with weapons and components has repeatedly attracted attention. If the Iranian trucks were indeed carrying important cargo, the Ukrainian Armed Forces could well have taken the opportunity to destroy it. This version should not be dismissed either.
In that case, Iran may remain silent to avoid drawing additional attention to its assistance to the Russian army. It could also possibly have involved the transportation of certain sanctioned goods from one of the Western countries — the destroyed trucks may have been traveling from an EU country. We have no grounds to state this directly, but there is also no reason to completely rule out such a possibility. One or two trucks are not a ship, and the losses would be insignificant for the Iranian regime. Tehran has little concern for its drivers, just as it has little concern for its own people, whom the country’s authorities have killed by the thousands during protests.
For Ukraine, this would also be a routine action as part of the ongoing war. There is no reason to blame the Ukrainians for carrying out such strikes — the country is defending itself against aggression. This includes strikes against the enemy’s logistics.
In that case, the silence of both Iran and Ukraine would be quite understandable. But why has official Minsk not responded to what happened?
Aliaksandr Lukashenka reacted rather cautiously to the drone strike on a passenger bus carrying children traveling to Gelendzhik. Unlike Russian officials, who immediately and unequivocally blamed Ukraine, the Belarusian politician said he was in no hurry to draw any conclusions.
Yes, Ukraine was asked to provide explanations, and a protest note was handed to its chargé d’affaires. But overall, Minsk’s reaction boiled down to a warning not to travel through the dangerous border area. And to stay away from Russia’s Bryansk region.
At a UN Security Council meeting devoted to the attack on the Belarusian bus carrying children, Belarus’ Permanent Representative to the UN Valiantsin Rybakou said that it had been carried out by a Ukrainian-made drone. At the same time, Belarus’ permanent representative did not say who had actually attacked the bus.
The Belarusian side behaved in much the same way during the second bus incident. “The Belarusian bus was not specifically selected for, so to speak, a target. It was a bus moving randomly through the territory of the Bryansk region, and a drone happened to fall on the road between two highways,” Belarusian Security Council State Secretary Aliaksandr Valfovich said at the time.
In other words, in both cases the Belarusian regime sought to avoid escalating relations with Ukraine. At least in the immediate aftermath, yesterday’s attack on the trucks has also gone without comment.
Perhaps this is not because the regime is afraid of confronting Kyiv. It may be because Minsk suspects — and perhaps even knows — where these attacks are coming from. It may understand that they are Russian provocations aimed at drawing Belarus deeper into the war. Getting Ukrainian-made drones and launching them at the desired targets would not be a difficult task for the Russians. Many captured weapons end up in the hands of the opposing side during a war. But there is an even simpler option — buying what is needed through front companies abroad.
After the second bus incident in the border area, we wrote that this provocation might not be the last. Less than a month and a half has passed.
This version is also supported by the fact that Russian methods have never been known for their scruples. The Iranian trucks fit the picture too — Russian logic may be: show Tehran the evil Ukrainians, and perhaps it will provide us with more assistance. With one drone, hit two birds with one stone — a Belarusian one and an Iranian one.
Moscow is clearly pushing Lukashenka to become more active and take a full-fledged part in the war. Minsk sees this. But, unable simply to tell the Kremlin to get lost, it prefers to turn a blind eye to what is happening. To reassure itself, it busies itself with all sorts of things — creating battalion tactical groups out of negligent officials and specialists, an academy of intelligent technologies and “dead” fertilizers. Just like in the famous film: if you cannot stop a destroyer, look for a button.
The question is how long Lukashenka will be able to ignore Russian provocations. If we proceed from the version that Moscow was behind these incidents, it will not stop with buses and trucks. Who knows what kind of “bloodbath” our ally could unleash in the autumn? What if Lukashenka still fails to understand the “broad hints,” and Russia decides to mobilize and escalate the war?
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The views and assessments expressed by the author may not coincide with the editorial position of Reform.news.