Belarusian leader denies responsibility for drones that flew into Poland and Lithuania
Self-proclaimed Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko is insisting that Minsk had nothing to do with Russian drones that violated Polish and Lithuanian airspace.
As reported by BelTA, a Belarusian state-owned news outlet, Lukashenko claimed that Belarus had no involvement in incidents in which Russian Shahed-type loitering munitions entered the airspace of Poland and Lithuania, adding that Belarus’ neighbours were overreacting.
"We have nothing to do with everything that happens to fly into Poland and Lithuania today. And if we wailed as hard as they do after every time drones fly into Belarus from Ukraine, Russia, via Poland, Lithuania… We have never done it. We calmly respond via appropriate communication channels," he said.
Lukashenko did not specify when in the course of the full-scale war the cases he referred to of "Ukrainian UAVs entering Belarus via Poland or Lithuania" had happened; there have been no reports of this occurring. However, cases have been reported of Russian Shahed drones veering off course and ending up in Belarus due to Ukrainian countermeasures.
Last week, Russian Shahed-type drones entered Polish airspace in large numbers for the first time and were shot down, also for the first time. Another Russian UAV remained in Romanian airspace for almost an hour, monitored by fighter jets.
The incidents occurred against the backdrop of the Russo-Belarusian Zapad-2025 (West-2025) military exercises. Belarus has claimed that it gave its neighbours advance warning of the approach of Russian drones to the border; Poland has confirmed this.
These events followed a series of isolated incidents in which stray drones have entered the airspace of Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In the case of Estonia, it was suggested that the UAV may have been Ukrainian.
Belarus has also reported that its forces practised deploying Russia’s Oreshnik missile system during the Zapad-2025 exercises.
- Last
- February, 05
-
-
-
-
- April, 28
-
-
-
-
-
-
- April, 27
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
News by day
18 of September 2025
