Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly accused Belarus on Tuesday of providing critical infrastructure for Russian drone strikes against northern Ukraine, stating that relay transmitter networks deployed on Belarusian territory are enabling guided drone attacks on Ukrainian energy and railway targets that would otherwise be beyond Russia's operational reach.
"Some of the attacks — including those on energy facilities and railway infrastructure in our regions — would not have been possible without this assistance from Belarus," Zelensky said, in remarks Ukrainian officials characterized as a deliberate diplomatic disclosure rather than routine battlefield commentary.
The statement was not accidental. Zelensky's decision to name the relay transmitters publicly — and to date their installation to the second half of 2025 — signals an intentional move to place Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's government on record as an active participant in the military campaign against Ukraine, not merely a passive host for Russian forces.
Relay transmitters extend the effective guidance range of attack drones. Long-range unmanned aerial vehicles require continuous communication links to receive targeting instructions, correct flight paths, and maintain accuracy against defended targets. Without relay infrastructure positioned closer to the target, communications degrade and drones become easier to jam or lose their guidance signal. By deploying relay networks on Belarusian soil, Russia has effectively extended its drone reach across a wider arc of northern Ukraine — from Kyiv to Volyn — regions that had been somewhat less exposed to the most precisely guided drone attacks.
The northern front matters strategically. Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts have faced relentless Russian pressure throughout the conflict, and the relay transmitter disclosure suggests that Russian strike capability against infrastructure in more westerly northern regions has been meaningfully upgraded since mid-2025. Energy facilities and railway infrastructure are the specific categories Zelensky cited — both are critical to Ukrainian military logistics and civilian survival through winter.
Zelensky also disclosed that over 3,000 Belarusian companies supply Russia with machinery, equipment, and components for missiles and weapons systems. This figure describes not a peripheral relationship but a systematic integration of Belarusian industrial capacity into Russia's war machine.
The international law dimensions of Lukashenko's facilitation are significant. A state that hosts military infrastructure used to conduct offensive operations against a third country is not a neutral party under the laws of armed conflict. The relay transmitters — technically Belarusian-hosted, Russian-operated communications nodes targeting Ukrainian civilians — occupy uncomfortable legal territory. Ukraine imposed new sanctions against Lukashenko on February 18, 2026, citing his role in facilitating Ukrainian casualties.
Zelensky also flagged Belarus's development of infrastructure to station Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile systems — a threat he characterized as directed not only at Ukraine but at European NATO members broadly. The Oreshnik, which Russia has test-fired against Ukraine, represents a qualitative escalation in the missile threat to the continent.
Minsk's posture has evolved since 2020, when Lukashenko's fraudulent electoral victory and subsequent crackdown eliminated the political independence that had previously allowed Belarus to maintain some distance from Moscow. The country's territory was used to stage part of Russia's February 2022 invasion, and it has since served as a rear base area. The relay transmitter deployment represents a further deepening of that integration.
Ukraine's decision to publicize these findings now — on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion — reflects a broader Ukrainian strategy of naming and documenting the full network of actors enabling Russian military operations, building both an international legal record and pressure on European governments that still maintain cautious relationships with Minsk.
In Ukraine, as across nations defending their sovereignty, resilience is not just survival — it is determination to build a better future. Part of that determination is refusing to allow the quiet complicity of neighboring states to go unnamed.
