A Russian drone with an armed warhead crashes in Latvia after crossing Belarus. Minsk officially confirmed the downing of a drone in its airspace, as reported by Belarusian Hajun monitoring group.
Poland issued arrest warrants for 3 Belarusian officials accused of orchestrating the 2021 forced landing of a commercial Ryanair flight in Belarus to arrest an opposition activist.
A Japanese citizen is detained in Belarus, accused of espionage.
Poland uncovers a cyber-sabotage group linked to Russian and Belarusian security services, amid a “de-facto cyber war.”
Human rights activists confirm the release of 10 out of 30 Belarusian political prisoners pardoned by Lukashenko and reportedly freed on Sept. 4.
Poland uncovers cyber-sabotage group linked to Minsk, Moscow
Polish security services have “broken up a group of saboteurs,” working for the Russian and Belarusian security services to destabilize Poland, Polish Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said at a press conference on Sept. 9.
According to Gawkowski, the operation started with a cyberattack against the Polish Anti-Doping Agency (POLADA) and was intended to be expanded to other institutions.
The group, which included Belarusians, reportedly tried to extort data to “cause paralysis in the political, military, and economic spheres of the state” and to wage a “de facto cyber war.”
The announcement came shortly after a group of NATO countries accused a unit of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency of carrying out cyberattacks against Ukraine and European countries in recent years.
Poland, one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies in its resistance to Russia’s war of aggression, has uncovered a number of suspected spy networks allegedly run by Minsk and Moscow.
According to Gawkowski, cyberattacks against Poland have doubled since last year, reaching 400,000 in the first half of 2024, as opposed to 370,000 cases reported over the entire 2023.
Elsa Court
Russian drone crashes in Latvia after crossing in from Belarus
A Russian Shahed drone crashed in Latvia on Sept. 7 after crossing into the country’s airspace from Belarus, the Latvian National Armed Forces reported.
The drone reportedly went down in Gaigalava parish deep inside the country. Rezekne Regional Council Chairman Monvid Švarts told the LETA news agency that the drone fell in a field far from any populated area, and there were no casualties.
Although the Russian UAV was armed with explosives, Latvian officials said they do not consider the incident as an open military escalation, as the target of the drone was not Latvia. Latvia’s Defense Minister Andris Spruds claimed it was directed against Ukraine.
The Latvian military reported the incident to NATO Command. The drone’s warhead was defused and sent for further expert examination.
"This situation is a confirmation that we need to continue the work we have started to strengthen Latvia's eastern border, including the development of air defense capabilities and electronic warfare capabilities that allow us to limit the activities of UAVs of various applications," Spruds said.
Latvia summoned the Russian Embassy's charge d'affaires, the Latvian Foreign Ministry announced on Sept. 9.
The open-source monitoring group Belarusian Hajun reported that eight Russian drones entered Belarusian airspace overnight on Sept. 7. One of them crossed the Belarusian border at 5.16 a.m. in the Brest region and flew into Latvia.
Latvia and Romania, both NATO members, said on Sept. 8 they were investigating Russian drone incursions into their airspace. Russian drones have previously crashed in Romania and its non-NATO neighbor, Moldova. Other drones and missiles have also violated Polish airspace on several occasions.
Newly appointed Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X the attacks were a "stark reminder that Russia's aggressive actions extend beyond Ukraine."
For first time, Belarus officially confirms downing drones in its airspace
The Belarusian military on Sept. 5 shot down drones in Belarusian airspace, the country’s officials have said, confirming earlier reports by the Belarusian Hajun monitoring group.
Citing the Deputy Air Force Commander Siarhei Fralou, the Defense Ministry claimed to have detected drones violating Belarusian airspace and shooting them down.
“Due to the timely actions of the anti-aircraft defense forces, all of the violators were destroyed,” Fralou said, adding that the authorities are conducting an investigation.
According to Belarusian Hajun, at least eight Russian kamikaze drones entered Belarusian airspace overnight on Sept. 5, with two of them being downed. Local media reported two explosions over Homiel, Belarus’ second largest city. Homiel is around 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of the border with Ukraine’s Chernihiv Oblast.
No casualties were reported as a result of the downing of the drones, but Belarusian emergency services were dispatched to liquidate a fire at a warehouse reportedly hit by one of the downed UAVs.
Belarusian Hajun has recorded multiple cases of Russian Shahed-type drones flying off course and into Belarusian airspace over the past few weeks. Since July 11, when the first stray Russian drone was spotted over the country, over 30 UAVs have been reported.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has said that the war is “increasingly felt in Belarus” as drone incursions are happening more often.
Frequent incursions of Russian combat drones in Belarusian airspace are also a challenge to one of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko’s core longstanding promises to maintain “peaceful skies” over the country ahead of the upcoming 2025 presidential elections in Belarus.
Minsk has never publicly raised objections about the drone incursions to Moscow – its key ally. However, Lukashenko claimed on Aug. 9 that several Ukrainian drones had been downed over Belarus, calling the incident “a Ukrainian provocation.”
Belarusian Hajun said the claim was false and that no Ukrainian drones had been detected.
Elsa Court
Poland issues arrest warrants for 3 Belarusians accused of forcing landing of commercial flight in Belarus airspace with political activist aboard
Warsaw District Court has issued arrest warrants against two Belarusian aviation managers and an unnamed high-ranking KGB officer over their involvement in the forced landing of a Ryanair commercial flight heading from Athens to Vilnius, which led to the arrest of opposition activist Raman Pratasievich.
Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported on Sept. 6 that the warrants for Leanid Churo, the former chief of air navigation company Belaeronavigatsia, Yauhen Tsyhanau, the head of the air traffic control shift at the time of the incident, and a high-ranking agent of notorious Belarusian KGB security agency, named only as Andrey A. M., were issued on charges of “hijacking an aircraft” with 126 passengers aboard and “false imprisonment.”
On May 23, 2021, Ryanair international passenger flight FR4978 from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, was intercepted in Belarusian airspace and ordered to land in Minsk. The authorities cited an alleged bomb threat.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) established that claims of a bomb threat were “deliberately false and endangered (aircraft) safety” and were “communicated to the flight crew on the instructions of senior Belarusian government officials.”
No bomb was found after the forced landing, but the Belarusian authorities arrested Belarusian political activist and editor of the opposition NEXTA Telegram-channel, Raman Pratasievich, and his girlfriend, a Russian citizen, Sofia Sapega. Both were then tried on politically motivated accusations and sentenced to eight and six years in prison, respectively.
The Polish court’s warrant ruling is based on the findings of a Polish-Lithuanian investigation unit set up in the aftermath of the grounding. It includes the testimony from 42-year-old air traffic control officer Aleh Halehau, who fled Belarus with the recordings from the air traffic control room made on the day of the forced landing.
According to Halehau, the KGB officer and the former air navigation chief Churo arrived in the operations control hall, to which only authorized personnel can be admitted, 45 minutes before the flight. The KGB officer instructed Halehau what to tell the pilot, and ordered the flight to land in Minsk. After the incident, Halehau was forced to write a false report.
The Polish warrant opens the way to issuing international warrants and allows the suspects to be sought through Interpol.
The forced landing is part of a plan carried out against some of Lukashenko’s most vocal critics. Soon after the landing, Pratasievich appeared in front of Belarus TV cameras with visible bruising, expressing support for the regime and confessing to the charges made by the regime against him.
Two years later, Pratasievich and Sapega were pardoned. Sapega has left the country, while Pratasievich continues to give interviews to propaganda channels.
As a result of the “hijacking” of the commercial flight, Belarusian airlines were banned from European skies, and European carriers are still advised not to fly over Belarus. The United States, the EU, the United Kingdom, and Canada have introduced coordinated sanctions against Belarusian entities and individuals involved in the incident.
Belarus detains Japanese citizen on charges of espionage
Belarusian security forces have detained a Japanese citizen, Masatoshi Nakanishi, on charges of spying for the Japanese secret services, according to a Belarusian propaganda documentary aired on Sept. 5 on Belarus 1, one of the channels of the sanctioned Belteleradiocompany.
The state-owned Belarus 1 channel said that Nakanishi arrived in Homiel, the southern regional center in Belarus, in 2018, and was officially employed as a Japanese language instructor in the local university while at the same time running what appeared to be a shell company called BelNikhonInternational.
The man was arrested in July, but information about the arrest was not reported until now. Nakanishi is accused of espionage, punishable by up to seven years of imprisonment.
Kanstantsin Bychak, the head of the KGB investigative department, told Belarusian propagandists the Japanese man was gathering information about the military, social, and economic conditions in Belarus, the implementation of China’s Belt and Road initiative, and conducted a recruitment study of Belarusian citizens with access to classified information.
Upon studying the documentary, Independent Belarusian journalists suggested that the “evidence” presented by the authorities was false or unsubstantial.
The Japanese Embassy in Belarus confirmed the detention of the Japanese citizen in his 50s, without providing his name. Tokyo protested against the documentary’s airing, saying that it violates their citizen’s human rights.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the incident was “extremely regrettable” and confirmed that consular support was being provided to the Japanese citizen.
According to the Viasna Human Rights Center, at least two Polish, one Lithuanian, and one Latvian citizen remained imprisoned in Belarus, charged with espionage or undercover activities as of July 2024.
Since the beginning of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, at least eight Ukrainian citizens have been accused of spying in Belarus for the Ukrainian security services.
Human rights activists confirm release of 10 out of 30 political prisoners reportedly pardoned by Lukashenko
Human Rights Center Viasna on Sept. 6 announced it had confirmed the release of ten out of 30 political prisoners in Belarus who were reportedly pardoned by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
Lukashenko on Sept. 4 pardoned 30 Belarusians charged with “protest offenses,” the term Belarusian officials use to refer to political “crimes.”
Among the seven women and 23 men reportedly released, independent media have confirmed that Dziana Zavadskaya, a manager of the S&P-500 tech firm EPAM, entrepreneur Viktoria Haurylina, and activist Maryna Kisialevich have been freed. The names of the others remain undisclosed due to concerns about their safety.
EU external affairs spokesperson Peter Stano issued a statement, welcoming the releases but chiding the Belarusian government for continuing to hold nearly 1,400 other political prisoners “in inhumane conditions.”
Yury Vaskrasenskiy, a former Lukashenko's political opponent-turned-propagandist, has said on Belarusian state-run broadcaster CTV that for the process of releasing prisoners to continue, there must be “a discussion” with Western states.
“It is clear that this process (of pardons) will not be endless,” Vaskrasenskiy said. “Further on, we need to discuss, we need to talk to those (who are) endlessly reproaching us for allegedly (holding) political prisoners.”
Vaskrasenskiy also announced that the next round of pardons is planned for Sept. 17, timed to coincide with the regime’s People’s Unity Day holiday. Lukashenko established Unity Day in 2021 after suppressing the massive anti-government protests that engulfed the country after his fraudulent reelection as the country’s president in 2020.
This is the third case of Lukashenko’s regime releasing political prisoners. According to the Viasna Center for Human Rights, 18 political prisoners were released in Belarus on July 3 ahead of the country’s official Independence Day celebrations, and another 21 people were confirmed to have been released on Aug. 16.
