One of Russian drones launched at Ukraine on 11 July peacefully hovered over Belarus for an hour

One of the Shahed kamikaze drones, launched by Russia during another attack on Ukraine on the evening of 11 July, flew into Belarus and remained in Belarusian airspace for at least one hour.

Source: Belaruski Hajun, a Belarusian Telegram channel monitoring military activity on the territory of the Republic of Belarus

Details: Analysts said that the drone entered the Belarusian airspace from Ukraine's Chernihiv Oblast in the area of the village of Loyew and headed northwest (towards Mazyr). 

There is another important detail. When first information emerged about the UAV entering Belarus, a Mi-24 helicopter of the Belarusian Air Force had already been in the airspace over Gomel for more than an hour. The helicopter had taken off from the Machulishchy airfield at around 19:00, and a fighter jet from Baranavichy had taken off even earlier, at around 18:30.

This at least indicates that the Belarusian air defence forces had detected the Shahed's entry into Belarus long before the information appeared on Telegram channels, and the drone had entered their airspace at around 19:00. Moreover, at the time of the first public reports, the Belarusian Air Force fighter jet had taken off from Gomel Oblast, and shortly afterward, the helicopter returned to Machulishchy.

The Belarusian forces may have been aware of the upcoming manoeuvres and were controlling the airspace over Belarus in case of unexpected behaviour from one of the Shahed drones, noted Belaruski Hajun.

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