Information about the communication problems of the Russian forces reinforces the impression that Russia has gone to war, too confidently and incompletely equipped, writes ‘s foreign journalist Mika Mäkeläinen.
– Part of the city has been almost completely destroyed. We cannot count the victims, but we believe that at least hundreds of people have died.
Russian troops surround Mariupol on the shores of the Azov Sea from all sides. At the time of the call, the city had been fired on for 15 hours.
A deliberate attack on the civilian population is a war crime.
During the Ukrainian war, Russian forces have communicated with each other using rudimentary analog technology, without concealing their messages. There have even been standard radiotelephones sold to consumers.
Specializes in spatial data analysis British intelligence company ShadowBreak International is collected information (you switch to another service) about how lazily Russian soldiers reveal everything in their radio communications, such as radio calls from various units and reports of casualties.
Loose speech can even accommodate war crimes.
In addition, the crying and swearing of Russian soldiers has been recorded when things have not gone according to plan. The communication speaks volumes about the poor motivation of the soldiers and the lack of coordination between the units.
Listening to radio messages would not be so easyif the Russians used digital communications and proper encryption.
The Russian Conflict Intelligence Group is told (you will switch to another service)that both cell phones and ordinary civilian radiotelephones had been found in Russian soldiers attacking Ukraine.
It is easy for anyone to eavesdrop on radio telephones.
According to ShadowBreak, a community of radio amateurs and other enthusiasts has emerged to document radio traffic. It has recorded the communications of Russian troops for hours. At least Twitter has even shared listening instructions (switch to another service).
Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozevin according to (you switch to another service) the reason for analog communication is that Russia has feared hacking its digital connections.
Another option is that the Russians just don’t have enough digital means of communication.
The Conflict Intelligence Group believes that because of analog communications, Russia will not be able to use its advanced electronic warfare equipment – that is, when it would also destroy its own communications.
Switching to old technology However, Russia ended up in the ditch, and now even the amateurs can partly follow the conversation of the Russian soldiers.
And because amateurs follow it, so do Western intelligence services. Anyway, they routinely record as much of the battlefield message traffic as possible.
At the same time, evidence is being obtained of war crimes in Russia.
However, it is difficult to assess the prevalence of failed communication. Properly designed for military use has also been found in the captured Russian soldiers communication equipment (you switch to another service)so the equipment is varied in quality.
In any case, information about the communication problems of the Russian forces reinforces the impression that Russia has gone to war – too confident and inadequately equipped.
This analysis is the eighth in a series that News continues during the Russian invasion. We publish a brief but in-depth and context-sensitive analysis every day at about 12 noon.
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