Belarus has come under a Russian drone attack in a catastrophic “friendly fire” fiasco in what is a major embarrassment for the country’s president Alexander Lukashenko.
Lukashenko has often boasted about his special relationship with Vladimir Putin, as the two countries forge ever closer ties in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The closer ties have allowed Russia’s army to use Belarus as a safe haven from where to launch missile and air strikes on Zelensky’s army.
It also receives substantial logistical support from Minsk, according to Western military experts.
Belarus supplies Russia with military equipment, including tanks and ammunition, training, and health care, as well as processing fuel and repairing damaged armour.
Yet despite all this, Russian drones have attacked the country in a crushing blow for Lukashenko.
The monitoring group Belarusian Hayun said a Shahed drone entered Belarus at around 8.40 am on Tuesday.
The UAV crashed and exploded 34 miles from the city of Babruisk and 75 miles from the border with Ukraine.
The Belarusian airforce scrambled a fighter jet and a helicopter in a desperate attempt to intercept it.
They also said a second drone entered Belarusian airspace on the same day. The UAV entered Belarus near the village of Belaya Soroka within the territory of the Palieski Radiation and Ecological Reserve, moving northward towards Chojniki.
It then turned southeast, bypassed Brahin, and headed towards the town of Kamaryn. It left Belarus and re-entered Ukrainian territory at 5am.
Two more Shaheds were detected by air defence radars but were then lost within Belarusian airspace.
The incident comes in the wake of growing tensions between Belarus and Ukraine, which has seen Minsk deploy extra troops and a division of multiple launch rocket systems to the border area.
However, Lukashenko said on Saturday that the troops would now return to their barracks.
Lukashenko told the official BelTA news agency during a tour of a border region that Belarusian intelligence had determined that Ukraine had withdrawn troops from sensitive areas.
He said: “That means that those (Ukrainian) troops which had been brought in as reinforcements are now gone.
“There are now no difficulties with the Ukrainians and I hope there will be none.”
