Daijiworld Media Network - Kyiv

Kyiv, Dec 27: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday accused Russia of using ordinary residential buildings in neighbouring Belarus to launch attacks on Ukrainian targets and bypass Kyiv’s air defences.

In a post on Telegram after a military staff meeting, Zelenskiy said Russian forces were attempting to evade Ukraine’s interceptor positions by operating through Belarusian territory, calling it a dangerous development for Belarus itself. He said the move reflected Belarus “surrendering its sovereignty” to Russia’s aggressive ambitions.

The Ukrainian leader said intelligence reports indicated that Russian forces had deployed equipment in Belarusian settlements near the border, including on residential apartment blocks. Antennae and other systems, he said, were being placed on the rooftops of ordinary five-storey buildings to guide Russian Shahed drones towards targets in western Ukraine.

“This shows an absolute disregard for human lives, and it is important that Minsk stops playing with this,” Zelenskiy said.

Neither the Russian nor Belarusian defence ministries immediately responded to requests for comment. Belarus has been a close ally of Moscow and allowed its territory to be used during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, though President Alexander Lukashenko has said Belarusian troops would not be sent into the conflict.

Zelenskiy also said the military meeting discussed funding interceptor drones, which Kyiv considers the most cost-effective way to counter Russia’s increasingly intense drone attacks. He added that Ukraine’s general staff had been tasked with revising air defence strategies to protect critical infrastructure and frontline positions.

Earlier this month, Lukashenko said Russia’s Oreshnik ballistic missile system had been deployed in Belarus and placed on active combat duty. A recent assessment by two US researchers, cited in a Reuters report, suggested that Moscow may be stationing the nuclear-capable hypersonic system at a former air base in eastern Belarus, potentially strengthening Russia’s missile reach across Europe.