Ukraine Continues to Target Russia's Military Barracks – Putin's Army in Hopeless 'Fight Against Cell Phones'?
Created: 05/01/2023, 20:50
By: Florian Naumann
A dangerous action in the Ukraine war - at least in larger groups: A Ukrainian soldier on his smartphone.
(Archive image) © IMAGO/Dmytro Smolyenko
Ukraine appears to have launched new strikes at Russian military shelters.
It may also be possible because of soldier errors on the smartphone.
Kyiv/MUNICH – Russia has announced a cease-fire over Orthodox Christmas.
Meanwhile, Ukraine suspects a “cynical trap”.
So Vladimir Putin's soldiers don't seem to have a peaceful Christmas ahead of them - Kyiv recently relied on targeted strikes against Russian troop quarters.
And there is no stop in sight.
The Ukrainian general staff announced on Thursday (January 5) that several “areas of Russian personnel concentration” had been hit.
The general staff counted “20 attacks” the day before, according to the
Kyiv Independent
.
However, this time Kyiv did not give any figures on Russian army losses.
There was talk of 300 to 400 dead after a blow in Makiivka near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on New Year's Eve.
A similar large-scale attack in Chulakivka in southern Cherson followed on Tuesday.
This also caused a stir in Russia: The result was fierce criticism – albeit more of the pro-Russian rebels’ tactical military knowledge.
Vladimir Putin's propaganda machine apparently wants to use what is happening.
But the processing of the Russian misery is already underway.
Ukraine strikes on Russian shelters: is the smartphone to blame?
The Kremlin partly blamed the soldiers on the ground for using their smartphones.
"It is already clear that the main cause of the events was the massive, illegal use of personal cell phones in the range of enemy weapons," the Defense Ministry said, according to Sergei Shoigu.
With the resulting data, Ukraine was able to find out the location of the armed forces.
"Fighting cell phones at the beginning of the 21st century is just as useless as, for example, fighting prostitution."
A Russian military blogger is sobered.
That's not the only interpretation.
According to Russian war bloggers, commanders negligently housed large numbers of soldiers together, writes the
New York Times
.
According to reports, also in the immediate vicinity of ammunition depots, which also detonated.
It is possible that mobile phone use only played a marginal role in Makiivka, for example.
Not noticing the several hundred Russian soldiers could only happen to the “idiots in our (Russian) Ministry of Defense,” the
Tagesspiegel
quoted the “Greyzone” telegram channel, which is apparently close to the Wagner group.
According to research by the
New York Times
, Russia was actually unsuccessful with a mobile phone ban - in some cases even phones stolen from Ukrainians were used.
"Fighting cell phones at the beginning of the 21st century is as useless as fighting prostitution, for example," the
Times
quoted a Russian blogger as saying.
Especially since the smartphones are sometimes used to direct their own artillery fire.
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Fancy a voyage of discovery?
My space
The Austrian
standard
referred to an episode from last December that has only now become known: At that time, a Russian volunteer took selfies with members of a special intelligence unit in occupied Cherson and posted it on the Russian Facebook equivalent VKontakte - including a geotag and the time of return from a mission.
Ukrainian rockets then destroyed the accommodation.
The soldier even documented that with a photo.
According to the
New York Times
, Ukrainian civilians looking for cell phone reception had also come under (targeted) Russian fire.
Russia's military shelters hit hard: new propaganda response from Putin?
With regard to Makiivka, Russia recently spoke of 89 soldiers killed – it had first admitted 63 fatalities.
According to the
taz
foreign journalist Dominic Johnson, the Kremlin did not give this number to admit its own failure - but to "exploit the attacks for propaganda purposes".
They should make clear to the Russian people the "scale of the 'threat'".
At a funeral service, a general's wife declared: "We are crushing the enemy."
The incident also sparked criticism of the military leadership on the Internet in Russia.
"Not the mobile phones and their owners are to blame, but the banal negligence of the commanders who, I am sure, did not even try to move people out of the building," said the Telegram group "Notes from a veteran “, followed by 200,000 accounts.
Meanwhile, Ukraine says it wants to strike "deeper and deeper" in Russia.
In the case of very targeted strikes - for example on the accommodation - the US rocket launcher Himar also helps.
(
fn with material from dpa
)
