Russian Banderol missile crashes in Belarus, media reports
Photo: Russian Orion UAV - carrier of Banderol missiles (Russian media)
The Russian Banderol missile-drone crashed in Belarusian territory. The incident occurred near the town of Kopatkevichi in the Petrikov district of the Gomel region, according to the Belarusian service of Radio Svoboda.
According to Ukrainian monitoring channels, at least 12 Russian Banderol drones entered Belarusian airspace in the morning. Some of them had likely already been in flight from Ukrainian territory.
One of the drones crashed near Kopatkevichi. Ukrainian monitoring channels claim that it ran out of fuel before crashing into a field.
Amid the appearance of Russian drones, the Belarusian side reportedly deployed air defense systems, according to Ukrainian sources. A Su-30 fighter jet was also scrambled from the airfield in Baranovichi.
At the same time, it is not reliably known how the drones were targeted for interception - they may have been shot down or countered using electronic warfare systems.
Information about Russian drones came from several areas of the Gomel and Brest regions. In particular, they were spotted near Naroulia, Mozyr, Petrikov, Svyetlahorsk and Yelsk.
So far, the Belarusian authorities have not confirmed the number of Russian drones that may have entered the country's airspace and have not provided details about the Banderol crash.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Ukrainian air defenses destroyed or suppressed six Banderol drones overnight.
In total, Russia launched 217 attack drones at Ukraine, including jet-powered Shaheds, Gerbera drones and Parody decoy drones.
