Drone relayers off: Ukraine's diplomatic triumph over Russia ally Belarus

Is the war entering a new phase? It was, perhaps, Ukraine's quietest victory over Russia's oldest and closest ally. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged neighbouring Belarus to shut down four Moscow-installed relay stations that help guide Russian drone attacks on Ukraine. The stations - originally cellular communication towers - relay signals for Russian drone operators and allow their unmanned aircraft to exchange information with each other and fly deep into western Ukraine, which has few drone interceptors and NATO-supplied air defence systems. The relayers did "make the signal stronger" and the Russian attacks "more precise", Andriy Pronin, one of the pioneers of drone warfare in Ukraine, told Al Jazeera.