Russian drones shot down over Belarus

The war in Ukraine is moving dangerously close to Belarus, Moscow's main ally, although its troops have so far cautiously stayed out of the conflict. On the night of Wednesday, September 4, Russia launched another massive kamikaze drone attack against Ukraine using Shahed drones. Eight of them flew over Belarusian airspace, two of which were shot down by Belarusian forces near Gomel, 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, the Belarusian Hajun Project military monitoring group reported on Thursday.

Both drones were intercepted by fighter jets at around 1:30 a.m. local time. The incident appears to be an embarrassment for the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, whose country has served as a base for Russian troops since the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

In a statement published on Telegram on Thursday, Chief of the General Staff and First Deputy Commander of the Belarusian Air Force and Air Defense, Colonel Sergei Frolov, denounced a violation of airspace by “invading” drones, but carefully avoided mentioning that they were Russian drones. “It was decided to destroy them (…). An investigation into the matter is underway,” he added. There was no official reaction from Russia as of Thursday evening.

Noise could not be ignored

This is not the first time Moscow has violated Belarusian airspace. According to the Belarusian Hajun project, an independent military monitoring group, “Russian Shahed-131/136 drones have been systematically flying into Belarus since the beginning of July.” The project also noted that since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, “at least 721 missiles have been fired from the territory of Belarus at Ukrainian cities.”

In the past two months, “more than 20 Russian Shahed-131/136 drones” have already entered Belarusian airspace, according to the Belarusian Hajun project. So far, there has been no official reaction to any of these incidents, apart from “propaganda attempts to deny everything.” However, the incidents on September 4-5 over Gomel, a city of half a million people, could not be ignored. “The response was too great,” explained the Belarusian Hajun project. “There is no doubt that there would have been no official reaction if the drones had been shot down over less urbanized areas.”

The Belarusian Air Force began shooting down some of these drones a few days ago. On August 29, during a previous attack by Moscow on Ukraine, a Belarusian fighter jet destroyed a Shahed drone that had entered the airspace in the Yelsk region in the middle of the night. In total, according to the Belarusian Hajun project, at least three Shahed drones have been destroyed by the Minsk army so far. This appears to be a security measure: “It is clear that these drones flying over Belarus pose a significant threat. The Belarusian Air Force appears to be shooting them down to prevent a Shahed from landing on a house, for example.”

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