On June 19, President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a stern ultimatum to Alexander Lukashenko, giving the Belarusian leadership one week to dismantle special signal repeaters used by Russia to coordinate drone strikes on Ukraine, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda. Zelensky highlighted that Kyiv is fully aware of the four repeaters located in the Gomel and Brest regions, which have been instrumental in targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure and railways.
The President warned that every Belarusian factory supplying components for Russian missiles or armored vehicles, as well as those providing fuel, constitutes direct complicity in the war. Statistics show a significant spike in fuel shipments from Belarus to Russia between January and May, underscoring Minsk’s active role in sustaining the Russian military machine. Zelensky emphasized that such actions only distance the prospect of peace.
This ultimatum follows a period of failed back-channel diplomacy. After Belarusian officials repeatedly ignored private warnings, Kyiv was forced to go public. Zelensky’s message was clear: the equipment must be removed, or Ukraine will take unilateral action to neutralize the threat. “Either they do it, or we will,” the President stated, noting that Belarus is extremely vulnerable to retaliatory strikes given that critical military and logistical targets are already within the crosshairs of Ukrainian forces.
The reaction from Moscow and Minsk was defensive. The Kremlin described the ultimatum as an “aggressive interference in internal affairs,” while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov invoked security treaties to warn against expanding the conflict. Interestingly, Lukashenko has shown signs of nervousness, even offering apologies for his past inflammatory rhetoric against the Ukrainian president—a gesture Zelensky dismissed as empty, demanding concrete de-escalation instead.
The ultimatum marks a significant shift in Kyiv’s stance toward Belarus, moving from a policy of cautious containment to active deterrence. As Russia continues to push its own aggressive agenda and demand terms that ignore Ukrainian sovereignty, Kyiv is showing that it will no longer tolerate the use of neighboring territory as a staging ground for attacks. The coming days will be critical, as the deadline expires and the threat of active engagement looms over the Ukrainian-Belarusian border.