Drones Over Belarus

Belarus is a landlocked and generally flat country.  More than anything, what distinguishes its landscape it its forests.  About 40% of the land area of the country is forested.  During its long winters, these forests become true winter-wonderlands, on a par with the best forests of Scandinavia.  In this drone video by FFly.Belarus, you'll get a bird's eye views of the country's endless forests in the dead of winter.  It was filmed near Mogilev (the country's third largest city) in its east-central region.

Multiple Drone Video of the Week/Month Winner vitaliy.karpovich brings us this fantastic drone video of Grodno, Belarus.  Situated on the Neman River, Grodno is one of the main cities of western Belarus.  Nearly 1,000 years old, at various times Grodno was part of the Polish Lithuanian Kingdom, the Russian Empire, Poland, and the Soviet Union.   Video highlights include the New Grodno Castle (at about the :18 mark), the Bernardine Monastery (:45), and the Baroque classic St. Francis Xavier Cathedral (1:05).

"Over Green and Blue" is an apt title for this video from top contributgor and drone pilot Fly.belarus, which takes us an an aerial tour of the Belarus countryside.  During the warmer months, the greenery of the forests which cover much of the country gets complemented by splashes of blue from endless lakes and rivers.  The country is home to 11,000 lakes, hundreds of streams, vast areas of wetlands, and portions of three major rivers, one of which (the Dneiper) is among the most important waterways in Europe.  

In this video, contributor and drone pilot Onekit gives us an aerial tour of the city of Vitebesk in Belarus.  It is situated on a tributary of the Dvina River, in the northern part of this Eastern European country.  The city was founded in the 10th century by a regent of the Kieven Rus, which once ruled over much of the region.  The country's fourth largest city, it was once home to a large Jewish population, most of which was murdered by the German Nazi's during their bloody occupation of Belarus during the Second World War.

The Dvina River, also called the Daugava, is an important river in Eastern Europe.  The waterway rises in Russia and runs a course of just over 1.0k km (620 mi.) through Belarus and Latvia before discharging into the Baltic Sea at the Gulf of Riga.   Historically, the river played an important defensive role given the lack of other natural defenses on the approaches to Moscow.  In this video, you'll get a bird's eye view of the river near the Belarus town of Vtibesk, compliments of contributor Onekit.  

Top contributor and drone pilot Fly.belarus braved the winter to create this beautiful drone video of the forests of Belarus in Eastern Europe.  The location is within the city limits of Mogilev, the largest city in the eastern part of the country and the third largest city overall, after Minsk and Homel.  Peaceful now, Mogilev was the scene of heavy fighting during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union at the outset of World War II, and in World War I it was the site of the imperial headquarters of the Russian army.   

Check out this drone video of the Holy Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Brest, Belarus, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot Nibrest2002.  Completed in 1995, the cathedral was built to commemorate Belarus's victims of World War II.   Located at the confluence of the Bug and Mukhavets Rivers on the western (Polish) border of Belarus, Brest was the first city attacked by Nazi Germany in its invasion of what was then the USSR; the ensuing conflict claimed the lives of at least 15% of the pre-war population of Belarus.  

You may have heard of Nesvizh Castle in Belarus, but you've probably never seen it from this perspective. Contributor and first person view (FPV) pilot Lluxazavr_fpv flew a racing quadcopter over and around the castle using video goggles, and captured the scene with an on-board HD camera.  The castle is located in a city of the same name in the west-central part of the country, in an area that was once part of Poland.  Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005, it is considered one of the finest castles in Eastern Europe.

Take a tour of some of the top sights of the landlocked East European country of Belarus in this fantastic drone video from VadimUshJa.  The first part of the video was shot in Nesvizh (Niasviž), a small city near the center of the country.  Here you'll get a great aerial view of the city's namesake castle, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the country's top cultural attractions. Then you'll head to Minsk, the country's capital city and the center of a metropolitan area of over 2.5 million.