On the use of unmanned aerial vehicles

March 6, 2024

From March 28, 2024, Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of September 25, 2023 No. 297 "On state registration and operation of civil unmanned aerial vehicles" (hereinafter referred to as the Decree) shall enter into force.

In 2023, internal affairs bodies recorded 568 cases of airspace use in the Republic of Belarus by unmanned aerial vehicles and model aircraft; 152 offenders were subjected to administrative measures for violating airspace use regulations.

According to clause 1.1 of this Decree, individuals are prohibited from importing into the territory of the Republic of Belarus, storing, circulating, operating, and manufacturing civil unmanned aerial vehicles (hereinafter referred to as civil UAVs) and model aircraft, as well as using airspace by civil UAVs. Circulation means acquisition, alienation, transfer, as well as other actions aimed at the emergence, establishment, termination of rights and obligations regarding civil unmanned aerial vehicles and model aircraft.

Clause 1.2: Import into the territory of the Republic of Belarus, storage, circulation, operation, and manufacturing of civil UAVs and model aircraft, and airspace use by civil UAVs by legal entities and individual entrepreneurs shall be carried out for the purposes of their entrepreneurial and professional activities in compliance with the requirements established by this Decree.

For violation of the airspace use regulations of the Republic of Belarus, legislation provides for administrative liability under Article 18.35 of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offenses, with a fine imposed on an individual of up to 20 basic units, and on a legal entity – up to 50 basic units, if the same act is committed repeatedly within one year, on an individual

a fine of 10 to 50 base units for an individual, and from 20 to 100 base units for a legal entity.

Depending on the consequences of violating airspace, the actions of the guilty person may be qualified as hooliganism, intentional destruction or damage to property, etc., which entails criminal liability.

Deputy Head

of the Department of Law and Order Protection

and Prevention of the Glubokoye District Department of Internal Affairs

D.V. Gribun