Three Belarus Cell Towers Near Ukraine Border Go Offline

Reports of the strike emerged the day before.

9.11.2026

Red metal gate blocking a dirt road, with warning signs and utility poles behind it

As noted in “Flagstok”, three cell tower transmitters were taken out of service in southern Belarus: two in the Gomel Region and one in the Brest Region. This was reported by the official Telegram channel of the Belarusian mobile operator Becloud. The post, labeled “Base Station Down!”, also lists the names of the owners/operators, the names of nearby geographic locations, their coordinates, and the base stations’ operating frequency—800 MHz.

All of the towers are located relatively close to the border with Ukraine. One of them—belonging to the operator A1—is located in the exclusion zone, near the Maidan checkpoint in the Khoyniki District (about 26 km from the state border); the second—belonging to the operator MTS—is in the village of Sloboda in the Lelchitsy District (about 27 km from the state border), and the third—also belonging to MTS—is in the village of Grushka in the Maloritsky District of the Brest Region (about 12 km).

Infographic listing base stations in border and regional cities that went offline from October 21 to November 3, 2026.

These towers can be considered strategic—Ukrainian authorities and the military had previously stated that towers in the border region of Belarus are used to relay signals for controlling Russian UAVs in neighboring regions of Ukraine.

Map of western Belarus showing radio signal locations near Hruška, Sloboda, and Maidan.

The towers ceased to function between October 21 and November 3. As of now, there have been no reports of their operations resuming.

Could the malfunctioning of these base stations have been related to the transmission of signals for Russian UAVs flying along the Ukrainian-Belarusian border? This cannot be ruled out. There have previously been reports of transmission equipment malfunctions on Belarusian territory at distances of up to 50 km.

Ukrainian air raid alert statistics page for Ovruch showing 313 hours and 31 minutes of alerts over the last 30 days, with a blue bar chart.

However, it is quite difficult to confirm the effect of a possible shutdown of “repeaters” is quite difficult. The Ukrainian monitoring service “Trivogi” notes a decrease in the total duration of air raid alerts in the border town of Ovruch in late October, followed by their resumption.

Earlier, Flagstok reported that in the village of Tonezh in the Lelchitsy district, which is near Sloboda, an MTS base station was also damaged. At that time, the operator announced a procurement contract for construction and installation work to restore the facility. And the day before, there were reports of a Ukrainian strike on a tower near Lelchitsy, though its coordinates were not specified.

https://charter97.org/en/news/2026/11/9/704862