Russia using Belarusian LTE networks for massive drone strikes, says Kyiv

Russia is likely using Belarusian LTE networks, along with a network of relay stations on Belarusian territory, to ensure stable signals for the Shahed-type drones used in massive strikes against Ukraine, two Ukrainian officials said on September 14.

The discovery comes two days after Russia’s massive strike on September 12, when hundreds of gasoline-engine drones, flying near Ukraine’s northern border, hit the country’s western regions in a strike of a scale rarely seen.

In a live broadcast on Radio NV, presidential adviser Serhii “Flash” Beskretnov said the flight trajectory of the drones used in the strike suggested the use of cellular networks for cross-border attacks.

“If we look at the movement of the jet-powered Shaheds and the conventional ones, they stay close to the border with Belarus,” he said. “I concluded that the Shaheds likely connect to Belarusian commercial LTE networks.”

The same day, the spokesman of Ukraine’s State Border Service, Andrii Demchenko, told Ukrainian television that Russia was also using radio relay stations in the attacks.

“The airstrikes that targeted the Rivne, Volyn and Lviv regions were in fact carried out from the territory of Belarus,” Demchenko said. “The air vehicles launched by Russia were fed signals through relays located precisely on the territory of that country.”

The placement of such relay stations on Belarusian territory has been a source of tension between Kyiv and Minsk, with President Volodymyr Zelensky issuing a formal ultimatum in the summer for the removal of the equipment. At the time, Zelensky declared that his counterpart Alexander Lukashenko had agreed to remove the relays.

Lacking access to technology such as SpaceX’s Starlink, Russia constantly uses a combination of radio technology innovations to maintain connection with Shahed-type drones during massive strikes against Ukraine.

Source: Kyiv Independent