Russia has been using Belarusian infrastructure to support its drone operations against Ukraine and incursions into NATO airspace, pro-Ukrainian hacker groups have revealed. According to the announcement on Friday (February 20), the hackers conducted a six-month cyber operation using dozens of accounts belonging to Russian military personnel to gain access to Russian drone-monitoring systems.
The groups reported that Russian forces used civilian infrastructure in Belarus, including cellular towers, to lay out routes and provide stable signals for Russian drone strikes against targets in northern and western Ukraine, including energy and railway infrastructure. They added that the Russian strikes conducted on the night of September 9 to 10, 2025, during which drones crossed into NATO airspace in Poland through Belarus, were actually a test of Belarusian civilian and cellular infrastructure for Russian drone strikes.
The hacker groups also noted that Russian forces used incursions into NATO airspace to plan strikes against logistics routes in both Ukraine and NATO member Poland to cut flows of Western military assistance to Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
These operations are likely part of Russia’s “Phase Zero” campaign, which it has been intensifying to destabilise Europe and undermine NATO cohesion in preparation for a possible NATO-Russia war in the future, experts noted.
“ISW continues to assess that Russia has de facto annexed Belarus and that Belarus is a cobelligerent in Russia’s war against Ukraine,” the institute added.
This comes as Ukraine continued its long-range strike campaign against Russian defence industrial and energy assets on the night of February 20 to 21, including with Ukrainian-produced FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, its forces conducted a missile strike against the Russian state-owned Votkinsk Machine Building Plant in Votkinsk, Udmurtia Republic – roughly 764 miles from the international border.
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The Ukrainian General Staff reported that the Votkinsk Plant produces Yars-series intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine-launched Bulava ballistic missiles (SLBM), 9M723-1 type Iskander-M ballistic missiles, and 9-S-7760 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles. Russian opposition outlet Astra and a Ukrainian open-source intelligence project reported that the plant also produces Topol-M missile systems and Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM).
Meanwhile, the Kremlin is intensifying its efforts to restrict internet usage and set informational conditions to block Telegram in Russia. Vladimir Putin signed a law on February 20, requiring Russian cell operators to disconnect communications at the request of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in cases “established by regulatory legal acts of the President of the Russian Federation”.
Russian opposition outlet Meduza noted that the law allows the FSB to block communications in all of Russia or specific federal subjects without explanation.