A Belarusian fighter jet shot down a stray Russian drone moments before a loud explosion went off, according to a local monitoring project.
The group claimed the Russian drone entered Belarus‘s airspace at approximately 3.30am local time on Thursday (1.30 am BST).
The Belarusian Hajun group said two explosions were then heard 30 minutes later in the country’s Yelsk district.
The organisation said the incident is “probably the first recorded case of a Belarusian Air Force Fighter attempting to destroy a military target in the sky.”
The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is believed to have been an Iran-made Shahed, also known as a “Kamikaze drone.”
The group told Newsweek there were no further details available at the moment about the incident.
They, however, noted that Belarus has been “sending aircraft to control the drones flying into Belarus for a while, so deploying aircraft is not something unusual for the Belarusian Air Force in recent months.”
They added: “But today was the first time [they] actually shoot it down.”
Belarus is one of a handful of countries Russia can still count as an ally and granted Moscow full access to its military airbases to launch attacks on Ukraine since the invasion began.
The Belarusian Hajun Project had previously reported an increase in patrolling at Baranovichi Airfield, home of the 61st Fighter Air Base, in western Belarus.