Vilnius has confirmed that a drone shot down by NATO early on Tuesday had crossed into Lithuanian airspace from neighbouring Belarus. The aircraft flew over Lentvaris, near the capital, before being brought down close to the village of Pratkūnai, according to Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre. It was the first time a drone has been downed over Lithuanian territory.
The incident has put Minsk back under scrutiny, not only for assisting Russia in its drone campaign against Ukraine but also as a direct source of threats to NATO’s eastern border. The incursion came just a day after Ukrainian officials reported that Russia was using Belarusian mobile networks and signal repeaters to steer Shahed-type drones during attacks on western Ukraine.
Minsk’s quiet role in Russia’s drone war
Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said flight paths of Russian drones during a mass attack on Saturday suggested they were relying on mobile networks across the border. “If we look at the movement of jet-powered and conventional ‘Shaheds,’ they stay close to the border with Belarus,” he said, adding that the drones likely had access to Belarusian commercial LTE networks.
On Monday, Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service said recent Russian strikes on the western regions of Rivne, Volyn and Lviv had been supported by communications infrastructure located inside Belarus. “The air assets launched by Russia were fed with a signal through repeaters that were also located precisely on the territory of this country,” spokesperson Andrii Demchenko said.
These claims suggest Moscow is again exploiting Belarusian territory to sustain its drone operations against Ukraine, months after Kyiv demanded that the equipment be shut down. Oleh Ivashchenko, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, said last week that Kyiv had identified six repeater stations in Belarus used by Russian forces to relay video streams from strike drones, and that some of the equipment had resumed operating.
The repeaters have been a point of contention between Kyiv and Minsk since June, when Zelenskyy gave Belarus a week to dismantle or switch off the Russian-installed devices, warning that Ukraine would otherwise act on its own. Days later, Zelenskyy said the repeaters had stopped operating on 22 June, though it remained unclear whether they had actually been removed. The shutdown did not last long: by the end of June, Ukrainian military officials said the equipment had not been dismantled and at least one repeater had been switched back on.
Their apparent return gives Russia another way to maintain communications with strike drones operating near Ukraine’s northern and western borders, including areas close to NATO territory. The drone interception over Lithuania underscores how the war’s spillover is increasingly touching the alliance’s eastern flank.
For NATO, the incident is a reminder of the growing drone threat from Belarus, which hosts Russian forces and serves as a staging ground for military exercises. The alliance has already bolstered its air policing in the Baltics, but the use of Belarusian infrastructure by Russian drones complicates the security picture. As Latvia’s prime minister noted, the EU is finally paying attention to Baltic warnings about Russia’s intentions.
The developments also come amid broader tensions on the continent, from incidents involving Russian warships to debates over defence spending. For Ukraine, the resumption of repeater use is a direct challenge to its ability to protect its western cities and borders. Kyiv has repeatedly called on Belarus to stop facilitating Russian attacks, but Minsk has shown little willingness to change course.
As the drone war intensifies, the line between Belarus’s complicity and direct involvement becomes increasingly blurred. The downing of a drone over Lithuania is a stark illustration of how the conflict is spilling beyond Ukraine’s borders, forcing NATO to respond to threats that originate from a country that is not formally at war with the alliance.
