“If he doesn’t, Ukraine will”: Zelenskyy just gave Lukashenka one week to strip Russian repeaters off Belarus’s border towers

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has given self-proclaimed Belarusian leader Aliaksandr Lukashenka one week to remove signal repeaters from Belarusian border towers that correct Russian fire on Ukrainian civilians, according to UkrInform. He has also warned that if Belarus does not act, Ukraine will. 

The ultimatum follows Lukashenka's apology to Zelenskyy on a media broadcast earlier in June, in which the Belarusian leader said Belarus would not engage in military action and apologized for previous harsh remarks.

Russian repeaters route Shahed drones through Belarusian border 

Zelenskyy has distinguished between Lukashenka's personal apology, which he has accepted, and the country-level issue, which he said remained unresolved: "If the insult is to my country, we will take offense and not forget. If it is personal, he apologized, and thank God for it."

"Words are useless. He has Russian repeaters or Belarusian repeaters on his towers today, what's the difference to us?" Zelenskyy asked.

He reminded that Belarus has equipment near two Ukrainian regions. 

"There are repeaters on the corresponding towers. He can remove this. Let him remove this equipment, let him turn off this equipment," he said. 

Earlier, Ukrainian hackers from the Fenix analytical cyber center and InformNapalm volunteers exposed a six-month operation in February 2026 showing Russia was routing strike drones through Belarusian civilian cell towers and had deployed signal repeaters on Belarusian rooftops. The repeaters extended Russian drone range across the Belarusian border into Ukraine's Kyiv, Rivne, and Volyn oblasts.

One-week ultimatum follows Lukashenka's apology

Zelenskyy said the Belarusian leader's words could not be trusted, citing Lukashenka's similar apologies at the start of the full-scale war when Russian missiles were launched at Ukraine from Belarusian territory: "Then Lukashenka also called, apologized, and said he couldn't control it."

Belarusian oil refining as Russian army supplier

Beyond the repeater issue, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is working to deprive Russia of the ability to sell oil and supply diesel and oil to its army. According to the president, Belarus's oil refining industry is now one of the main suppliers for the Russian army.