The increasing frequency of attacks by Ukrainian long-range kamikaze drones since March 2026 has led to a sharp increase in incidents involving “unknown drones” in the airspace of the Baltic states, Poland, and Finland. The issue has become extremely sensitive for Russia, the Baltic states, and, to some extent, Poland and Belarus, and despite several statements from Russia, there have yet to be any signs of de-escalation. The Baltic states have repeatedly stated that they have not authorized Ukraine to use their corridors.
According to Russian social media, “the so-called Baltic drone corridor is easy to circumvent or navigate undetected, depending on your perspective, by flying around Belarus from the west or the east, or even better, by directly crossing its airspace at extremely low altitudes over the sparsely populated forests and swamps of Polesia, then crossing the border into Latvia or the Pskov region. Indeed, designers optimize their aircraft for low-speed, long-duration flights at extremely low and ultra-low altitudes, since their primary weapon is stealth technology: not technologically advanced, like that of the B-2 stealth bombers, but made effective by the challenging geographic conditions of Russia and Belarus, which allow them to avoid penetrating critical air defense zones, rather than doing so hastily and without sudden maneuvers, using satellite or electronic reconnaissance data provided in real time by their Western partners.”
On May 26, the Belarusian side revealed a series of facts. Belarusian Security Council Secretary Alexander Volfovich reported that as many as 116 Ukrainian drones have breached the Belarusian border in the past week, 59 of which were targeted by air defense systems.
According to Volfovich, breach attempts are recorded almost daily. Control along the entire flight path is carried out via terminals of the civilian Starlink system or via the military Starshield global communications system, which differs only in its software, access channels, encryption security, and assigned frequencies.
Ukraine is an official partner of the Pentagon in military satellite communications and has access to Starshield, like all NATO countries. However, Starshield, unlike Starlink, has no regional restrictions and operates worldwide without temporary legal barriers. Starshield offers even faster data transfer speeds, its channels are encrypted to military standards, it is much better protected from interference, and, at the system level, it was originally designed for military applications, particularly navigation, low-latency video streaming, etc. Therefore, Ukrainian military personnel and designers do not need to perform complex manipulations with Starlink, having at their disposal a specialized device ideal for their combat missions.
Graziella Giangiulio
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