WW3 warning as Russia ‘plans strikes’ on NATO country | World | News
Pro-Ukrainian hacker groups have revealed that Russia is using Belarusian infrastructure to support drone operations against Ukraine and attacks on NATO airspace. According to the statement made on Friday, February 20, hackers carried out a six-month cyber operation using dozens of accounts belonging to Russian military personnel to gain access to Russian drone tracking systems.
The groups reported that Russian forces used civilian infrastructure, including cellular towers in Belarus, to route and provide stable signals for Russian drone attacks on targets in northern and western Ukraine, including energy and rail infrastructure. They added that the Russian attacks on the night of September 9-10, 2025, when drones crossed over Belarus into NATO airspace in Poland, were actually a test of Belarus’ civil and cellular infrastructure for Russian drone attacks.
Hacker groups also noted that Russian forces are using incursions into NATO airspace to plan attacks on logistics routes in both Ukraine and NATO member Poland in an attempt to disrupt the flow of Western military aid to Ukraine. Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Experts pointed out that these operations were probably part of Russia’s intensified “Phase Zero” campaign to destabilize Europe and undermine NATO integrity in preparation for a possible NATO-Russia war in the future.
“ISW continues to assess that Russia has de facto annexed Belarus and that Belarus is a co-belligerent in Russia’s war against Ukraine,” the institute added.
This comes as Ukraine continued its long-range attack campaign against Russian defense industrial and energy assets on the night of February 20-21, including using Ukrainian-made FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, its forces launched a missile attack on the Russian state-owned Votkinsk Machine-Building Plant in Votkinsk, Republic of Udmurtia, approximately 764 miles from the international border.
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The Ukrainian General Staff reported that the Votkinsk Factory produces Yars series intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine-launched Bulava ballistic missiles (SLBM), 9M723-1 type Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 9-S-7760 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles. Russian opposition broadcaster Astra and Ukraine’s open-source intelligence project reported that the facility also produces Topol-M missile systems and Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs).
Meanwhile, the Kremlin is intensifying its efforts to restrict internet use and create information conditions to block Telegram in Russia. On February 20, Vladimir Putin signed a law requiring Russian mobile operators to interrupt communications at the request of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in cases “determined by regulatory legal acts of the President of the Russian Federation.”
Russian opposition media outlet Meduza stated that the law allows the FSB to block communications throughout Russia or on certain federal matters without explanation.
