A Russian relay balloon crossed into Ukrainian airspace from Belarus on the evening of 2 May, Ukraine's State Border Guard Service confirmed on 3 May. The balloon was identified as a signal-boosting station for Russian airborne strike weapons.
This is the "specific activity" on the Belarus border that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned about the day before. It fits a pattern Ukrainian intelligence has been building for months: Russia uses Belarusian territory as a transmitter to keep its drones connected as they fly into Ukrainian cities.
What the border service said
State Border Guard Service spokesperson Andrii Demchenko confirmed the incident in an interview with the national telethon, RBC-Ukraine reported.
"Yesterday evening, we also saw the entry of an aerial target from the Belarus side, which was subsequently identified as an air balloon. In effect, this is a relay station to boost the signal for the airborne strike weapons that Russia uses against Ukraine during attacks," Demchenko said.
The balloon crossed the border the same evening Russia attacked Ukraine with strike drones.
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Demchenko said the border service expects further provocations from Belarus and is preparing for them. He did not specify what other forms the destabilization attempts might take.
"The threat from Belarus never disappears … I cannot now openly disclose everything, but we can expect, or we can prepare for, attempts to destabilize the situation in the direction of our border. We do not rule out provocations," he added.
A Russian signal extender
The balloon is the airborne version of an effort that Ukrainian intelligence has already documented on the ground. In February, Ukrainian hackers from the Fenix analytical cyber center and InformNapalm volunteers exposed a six-month operation showing Russia was routing strike drones through Belarusian civilian cell towers and had deployed signal repeaters on Belarusian territory in the second half of 2025.
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The repeaters extended Russian drone range across the Belarusian border in parts of Ukraine's Kyiv, Rivne, and Volyn oblasts. Zelenskyy credited the Belarusian infrastructure for enabling some Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy and railway targets when he announced personal sanctions on Aliaksandr Lukashenka in February.
A floating relay balloon does the same job as a ground relay balloon, but from the air. It can drift across the border and boost the signal for Russian strike drones flying into Ukraine.
