In A Village In Southern Belarus, People Are Talking About Strange Activity Near The “military Tower”
- 2.07.2026, 17:33
Local residents heard explosions.
Belarusian repeaters near the border have been making headlines for several weeks now. On June 30, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that after being completely shut down, one relay station had nevertheless been turned back on. However, he expressed confidence that this would not happen again. As "Zerkalo" has learned, residents of a village in the south of the country heard sounds resembling explosions for two days.
What is this latest repeater that “will no longer be turned on”?
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi stated in an interview that the Ukrainian military detected one of the repeaters operating in Belarus on June 29. According to him, the repeaters on Belarusian territory have not yet been dismantled.
“I think they won’t turn them on anymore,” said the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“Is it physically impossible for them to do so?” the journalist asked.
“Well, I can’t tell you everything. I think they’ll realize it’s not worth doing.” Let’s put it this way,” Syrsky stated.
He did not say what his confidence was based on. Was there some kind of physical intervention? Or did the military find a way to shut down the repeater remotely? Or perhaps the two sides reached an agreement? The Ukrainian Armed Forces declined to clarify this point. Ukraine’s Ambassador-at-Large was unable to either confirm or deny the version regarding a possible strike.
“Like, they were shooting down drones”
On July 1, blogger Pavel Onushko named a specific location—the village of Porechye in the Pinsk District, located approximately 35 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. According to the blogger, a repeater “was destroyed” in this village. However, he did not specify where he obtained this information. Judging by his posts, he himself is not in that area.
A journalist, acting as a concerned citizen, contacted a branch of a government agency in the village of Porechye.
“It happened yesterday. And the day before yesterday. They were shooting down drones, so to speak,” said the employee who answered the call. “We have a military tower there, near the collective farm yard, if you know it. That’s what they were shooting down. It happened three times yesterday and three times the day before yesterday—it sounded like an explosion. Well, the military is probably there… they must be seeing all this.”
At the time of the call—July 2—she said the situation had calmed down.
“Everything has calmed down now; nothing happened today. Everything’s quiet—people are going to the post office, to the store, everywhere,” she assured me.
“There’s a tower standing there”
The journalist also reached out to the local executive committee as a mother concerned about whether it was safe to send her child to summer camp in Porechye.
“Well, there’s no danger at all,” they tried to reassure her. “We haven’t received any official information either. There’s a tower standing there… Something strange was going on, but there’s no official information at all. And that tower is located quite a distance from the children’s camp. In other words, it’s not even on that side of town. So I don’t think there’s any reason to worry.”
According to data from mapping services, there’s a base station in Porechye belonging to the state-owned provider beCloud, located slightly south of the village itself. On online maps, the structure looks like a tower. Based on historical photos, it was built between 2017 and 2019.
An agricultural enterprise is located nearby. It can be assumed that this is what his interlocutor referred to as the “collective farm yard.”
Zelenskyy’s Warning
On June 19, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Minsk should dismantle the relay stations, which, according to Kyiv, help Russia target drone strikes on Ukrainian territory.
Later, Zelenskyy reported that Ukraine is aware of four such facilities in the Brest and Gomel regions and gave Minsk one week to dismantle them, warning that otherwise Ukraine might destroy these facilities on its own.
On June 24, Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that, according to a report from the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and intelligence, the relay stations had ceased operations on Belarusian territory as of June 22.