Russia has set up five launch sites for “Shahed” drones near the border with Belarus
14 June 07:18
The Russian military has deployed and is actively using at least five launch sites for “Shahed” attack drones (known in Russia as “Geran”) near the border with Belarus. This was reported by Radio Liberty, citing an analysis of satellite imagery and open sources, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
The sites are located in the Bryansk, Oryol, and Smolensk regions—several dozen kilometers from Belarusian territory—and some of them continue to expand.
Among the identified sites is the Shatalovo military airfield in the Smolensk region, located approximately 46 kilometers from the border with Belarus and in use since early 2025. In the Oryol region, near the village of Tsymbulove, a drone center has been established; its area spans nearly 2 by 4 kilometers, housing at least 12 launchers and about a hundred storage facilities for unmanned aerial vehicles. In the Bryansk region, several facilities stand out: a complex in Navli, built from scratch in the fall of 2024 approximately 127 kilometers from the border; the Sischa airfield, which was used for launches as early as 2022–2023 and is located 45 kilometers from Belarus; and a new facility near the village of Asovitsa, which began operations in the fall of 2025.
According to the publication, the placement of these facilities near Belarus allows for reducing the flight time of drones to Kyiv and the western regions of Ukraine, as well as varying attack routes. Ukrainian military expert Anatoliy Khrapchynskyi calls this location “the most advantageous,” explaining that the proximity to the Belarusian border allows drones to either strike Kyiv directly or move along the border toward Ukraine’s western regions. Spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force Yuriy Ignat, in turn, notes that Russian drones are deliberately “hugging” the Belarusian border, which complicates the work of Ukrainian air defense, and are also using Belarusian territory as a transit corridor.
In Belarus itself, a sharp increase in airspace violations has been recorded. Andrei Lukyanovich, Commander of the country’s Air Force and Air Defense Forces, reported that over 1,400 such incidents were recorded in 2025 alone. Belarusian Security Council Secretary Alexander Volfovich stated that 116 violations were recorded in a single week in May 2026. Meanwhile, Commander of the Internal Troops Nikolai Karpenkov claimed that in 2025, approximately 520 drones were neutralized on the country’s territory, a third of which were combat drones. However, the Belarusian authorities generally do not identify these drones as Russian, while the Ukrainian side claims that the vast majority of them are “Shaheds” and “Gerbers” that use Belarusian airspace to attack Ukraine, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty notes.
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