Russia Uses Belarus to Launch ‘Shahed’ Drones and Exert Missile Pressure — Palisa
Russia is actively using Belarusian territory as a staging ground for military pressure against Ukraine, including for deploying missiles and launching strike drones.
This was stated by Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Pavlo Palisa.
Responding to a question about Belarus’s strategic role for the Kremlin, Palisa outlined several key points.
“It is more convenient for Russia to use the territory of Belarus as a base — for pressure and for missile deployments. There is already active use of corridors for ‘Shahed’ drones, including the use of communication towers to control drone flights,” he said.
According to Palisa, directly involving the Belarusian army in the war against Ukraine would pose significant risks for Belarus’s self-proclaimed president Alexander Lukashenko and would have questionable military effectiveness. At the same time, the threat itself is actively used by Moscow as a tool of pressure and blackmail.
As previously reported, on 18 February President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a new package of sanctions against Lukashenko. He noted that in the second half of 2025, Russian forces deployed a system of relay transmitters in Belarus to control strike drones. This has significantly expanded Russia’s ability to carry out attacks on Ukraine’s northern regions — from Kyiv region to Volyn.
According to Zelenskyy, some attacks, particularly against energy facilities and railway infrastructure in Ukrainian regions, would not have been possible without such assistance from Belarus.
