Ukraine may be forced to destroy Russian drone relay systems located on Belarusian territory if Belarusian authorities do not remove them.

Axar.az reports, citing Ukrainian media, retired Ukrainian Armed Forces Colonel and military expert Roman Svitan said the systems are used by Russian operators to control drones attacking Ukraine.

“We are talking about relay systems on Belarusian territory, through which Russian operators control their drones that enter Ukrainian territory. They can control them in real time at a depth of 150–200 km,” he said.

According to Svitan, this puts regions including Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, and Chernihiv under threat, although many drones are intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses.

He said electronic warfare measures have been used before, but have not fully solved the issue.

“Electronic warfare was used before, but the relay systems remained, and suppression does not always work. Therefore, the destruction of the relay systems themselves is needed. The optimal option is for Lukashenko himself to order their removal. But if he does not do this, we will have to destroy them,” Svitan said.

The comments came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Belarus must stop the operation of equipment used to coordinate Russian drone attacks against Ukraine, warning that Ukraine would respond if the systems were not removed.