390 Russian Shaheds enter Belarus in 2024 - monitoring group

This was reported by the Belarusian Hajun monitoring project.

According to the report, at least 145 Russian Shaheds crossed into Belarus on December 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, and 31. Out of these, 36 drones returned to Ukraine and Russia, while 109 disappeared.

In total, Hajun recorded 395 drone entries into Belarus in 2024, including 5 reconnaissance drones. There were 10 confirmed cases of Shaheds being shot down or crashing in Belarus and Latvia, along with one incident of a building being damaged by a falling UAV.

Read also: Chinese parts increasingly found in Shahed drones — aviation expert

Most of the drones entered Belarus in November and December, with 151 in November and 145 in December. Other months saw fewer drones, with 9 in July, 12 in August, 29 in September, and 49 in October. Of the 395 drones, 196 returned to Ukraine and Russia, 189 disappeared, and 10 were shot down or crashed in Belarus and Latvia.

Hajun concluded that there is currently no reason to believe that the flights of Russian Shahed-136/131 UAVs to Belarus will stop anytime soon.

• In 2024, Kyiv experienced 500 air raid alerts as Russian forces carried out nearly 200 airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital.