Ukrainian Armed Forces Destroyed A Relay Station In Belarus: New Information

26.07.2026

MTS announced a procurement contract for infrastructure restoration in Polesie.

The Belarusian mobile operator MTS has announced a tender for the restoration of a cell tower in the village of Tonezh in the Lelchitsy District, which is located near the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. The procurement notice appeared following reports of an attack by Ukrainian drones on the facility, which could have been used by the Russian military as a relay station to control “Shahed” drones, according to “Flagstok”.

Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MTS) has announced a tender for construction and installation work (CIW) to restore one of its mobile base stations in the Gomel Region.

In mobile operator terminology, a base station (BS) is a tower and a complex of electrical equipment that ensures signal transmission.

The base station requiring restoration work is numbered 1499. As determined by “Flagstok,” it is located near the cultural center in the center of the village of Tonezh in the Lelchitsy District of the Gomel Region.

The procurement documentation does not specify the exact nature of the damage sustained by the base station. However, a complete set of drawings for the steel structures and electrical equipment is attached to the documentation.

The initial cost of the contract to restore the 39-meter structure is nearly 700,000 Russian rubles (about $9,000). Information on the procurement cost is posted on a Russian e-procurement platform.

It is noteworthy that, at this time, this is the only MTS procurement that specifically provides for construction and installation work to restore the facility.

It is noteworthy that on July 5, the independent Belarusian publication This Minsk Media reported on a Ukrainian strike on the tower near Lelchitsy. The publication cited an unnamed source and specified that a fire broke out after the first strike attempt.

“They missed the first time—a forest fire broke out after the drone crashed. When firefighters arrived to put it out, they witnessed a second attempt: the drone struck the tower directly. Local residents were strictly forbidden from discussing what had happened or even leaving their homes. But everyone here knows what happened,” said one of This Minsk Media’s sources.

How Events Unfolded

By mid-June, Ukraine had attempted several times through closed channels to convince Minsk to shut down the repeaters used by Russian drones. According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, there was no response.

On June 19, Volodymyr Zelenskyy effectively issued a one-week ultimatum to Minsk, stating that if the problem was not resolved, Ukraine would “solve this problem on its own.”

On June 24, Zelenskyy reported that four relay stations in the Gomel and Brest regions had ceased operating as of June 22.

On the night of June 26, five Russian “Shahed” drones (or their imitations) flew from Belarus toward Korosten, likely using relay stations again.

On June 29, former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that one repeater in Belarus had been activated once more, but expressed doubt that this would happen again. When asked why they would no longer be activated, he replied that he could not disclose all the details and added that, in his opinion, Belarus understands that this should not be done.

Thus, the base station in the village of Tonezh may be the very one Alexander Syrsky referred to on June 29.

However, this is not the only possible location where repeaters were disabled. “Flagstok” also received information about damage to a tower in Loev on the evening of June 24. In addition, there were reports of a tower being blown up in the village of Porechye in the Pinsk District, although the exact date of this incident is unknown.