“Satellite images indicate that work on the arrangement of the position for the air defense system on the territory of the plant began in January 2025”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
Last year’s satellite images, which were examined by journalists, indicate that work on arranging a position for the air defense system on the territory of the plant began in January 2025 – seven months before the anti-aircraft missile complex itself appeared there. At the same time, in January 2025, the monitoring project “Belarusian Gayun” reported on the appearance of other protective structures – firing points, trenches and roadblocks – around the Mozyr Refinery.
The anti-aircraft defense system, which was detected by a satellite on the territory of the oil depot last summer, may be the Russian anti-aircraft missile complex “Tor”, aviation expert Anatolii Khrapchinskyi thinks. This, he said, is indicated by the shape of the installation’s shadow, best seen in Planet Labs’ high-resolution images from Jan. 16, 2026.
“We can see that the shadow of the object in the picture is similar to a tank (tower and chassis), and its length-width clearly corresponds to the dimensions of a system like “Thor”. “Most likely, this is a modern Tor-M2, which is built, in particular, on a chassis from the Belarusian Minsk Wheeled Tractor Plant,” Khrapchynskyi said in a comment to “Schemes”.
In November 2022, the opposition Telegram channel “Live. Association of Railwaymen of Belarus” reported that Russia handed Belarus at least 15 Tor-M2 anti-aircraft systems.
“This is precisely the class of air defense that is optimized for low-altitude, small-sized targets, in particular, large strike drones, so its deployment is a logical element of preventive protection. It seems that Lukashenko is trying to minimize the risk of “incidents”, including possible sabotage, even from the Russian side, and this is definitely not about fighting his own partisans,” Khrapchynskyi explained.
The aviation expert added that Belarusian leader Oleksandr Lukashenko consistently tries to avoid direct participation in hostilities and air defense protection is one of the ways to stick to this course.
According to the archived version of the website of the Mozyr Refinery, preserved in the WebArchive service, the enterprise produces gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products. It is located 30 kilometers north of the border with Ukraine.
Since October 2022, this plant has been under the sanctions of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, Major Robert Brovdi, reported that the Mozyr Refinery is one of the suppliers of its own products to Russia. In particular, through the Druzhba oil pipeline, part of the infrastructure of which, according to Russian and Ukrainian media reports, is an oil depot.
In January 2025, a number of Russian propaganda channels announced the alleged flight of drones from Ukraine in the direction of the Mozyr Refinery. However, the independent monitoring project “Belarusian Gayun”, referring to its sources, denied this information.
During the fall of 2025, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, according to the General Staff, struck more than 50 objects of fuel and military-industrial infrastructure on the territory of Russia, in particular, objects that are part of the Druzhba oil pipeline system. This is an extraordinary number of successful hits, according to the experts interviewed by “Schemes”.
Investigative journalists compiled an interactive map of the affected Russian strategic objects and analyzed the consequences of these strikes with the help of satellite images and the expertise of interviewed oil and fuel industry analysts.