Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters that relay stations on the Belarus-Ukraine border, which Kyiv says helped guide Russian drones, stopped operating on June 22.
According to the Ukrainian president, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and intelligence services reported the shutdown to him. Zelensky added that it is still unclear whether the equipment has been dismantled.
Ukrainian authorities have long said that antennas located in Belarus are part of two-way video communication systems used by Russian long-range drones such as the Geran and Gerbera, which have been used in attacks on Kyiv.
Ukraine says Russian forces, like the Ukrainian military, use mesh networks for drone video links. In that system, drones equipped with cameras and special modems act as airborne relays for one another, allowing communication over dozens or even hundreds of kilometers. The initial signal, however, comes from ground-based relay stations.
Kyiv believes that Russian relay stations used for such networks around the capital are located in Belarus. Ukrainian State Border Guard Service spokesperson Andriy Demchenko said border guards had recently recorded a decline in Russian strike drones entering through the Chernihiv region and no mass flights of Shahed drones along the Belarus-Ukraine border.
On June 19, Zelensky demanded that Alexander Lukashenko remove the relay stations and warned that if this was not done within a week, Ukraine would do it itself. Lukashenko has not publicly commented on those remarks.