On the morning of 15 July, Russian troops attacked a petrol station in the Malyn community in Zhytomyr Oblast, according to Vitaliy Bunechko, head of the regional military administration. Two injured people were hospitalised, one of whom is in a serious condition. Serhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser to the Minister of Defence, suggested that the drone may have been controlled via relay stations on Belarusian territory.
Briefly about the main points
- Two people were injured as a result of an attack on a petrol station in the Malyn community.
- Doctors assessed one of the hospitalised victims as being in a serious condition.
- «Flash» linked the drone’s flight path to suspected manual control.
- He suggested the use of repeaters within Belarus.
- The Ukrainian authorities had previously reported four such repeaters.
The drone’s flight path formed the basis for the theory
Adviser to the Minister of Defence Sergey Beskrestnov, known by the call sign «Flash», drew attention to the drone’s route. According to him, the Russian «Shahed» was travelling along the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, reached the Korosten area, and then flew over the motorway and along the railway line towards Malyn.
Beskrestnov considers this type of flight to be typical of manually controlling a drone via a video link. In his estimation, the distance from the site of the attack to the Russian border — around 260 kilometres — is too great for a direct radio link between the operator and the drone.
That is why the expert suggested that the signal might have been transmitted via intermediate repeaters in Belarus. This is a version of events, not the published findings of an official investigation into the attack.
What is known about the attack on the petrol station
The attack on PETROL STATION The head of the Zhytomyr Regional State Administration confirmed this in the Malyn community on the morning of 15 July Vitaliy Bunechko. According to his initial reports, two people were injured and taken to hospital. The mayor of Malyn, Oleksandr Sytaylo, said that one of the victims was in a serious condition.
Rescue workers and other emergency services were at the scene. The authorities did not provide any details about the guidance system of the drone that attacked the petrol station.
The Ukrainian authorities have already mentioned the repeaters in Belarus
On 20 June, the President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine had identified four relay stations in the Gomel and Brest regions of Belarus. According to him, Russia had used them to launch strikes, in particular against the Zhytomyr, Rivne and Volyn regions, as well as against the energy sector and the railways.
In February, the Office of the President reported that a system of relay stations for controlling attack drones had been deployed in Belarus in the second half of 2025. Meanwhile, on 25 June, Zelenskyy said., ...that this equipment had ceased operations on 22 June following Kyiv’s ultimatum.
This version requires a technical explanation
Previous statements by the Ukrainian authorities suggest that Russia may already have been using relay equipment in Belarus to carry out attacks on Ukraine’s northern regions. This makes Beskrestnov’s hypothesis technically plausible, but does not establish how the specific drone was controlled on 15 July.
