Warfare can come in a variety of guises. An important part of the war in Ukraine consists of covert wiretapping to obtain intelligence information about the adversary, which can provide advantages on the battlefield.
One who works with just that type of sensitive information is “Maria”, who in an interview with the Kyiv Post testifies to all the horrors she listens through on a daily basis when she intercepts Russian soldiers’ calls home to family and friends.
– They share stories about how they torture the Ukrainian soldiers. A Russian soldier bragged to his wife about how he decapitated a man, to which the wife laughed in response, she says.
“Sometimes I can’t believe the words I hear”
The sensitive information is not made public, although the Ukrainian Defense Forces occasionally release samples of intercepted conversations. It is not infrequently a frightening picture of the reality of war that is painted, where abuse of prisoners is interspersed with brutal depictions from the front.
Some Russian soldiers describe how entire units were wiped out in ill-conceived attacks, while others tell of internal divisions that ended in firefights.
The stories run counter to reporting from Russian media, which has repeatedly accused Ukraine of releasing fake phone calls.
But “Maria” vouches that they are correct.
– It’s real, even though it may sound unbelievable. Sometimes I can’t believe the words I hear, she says.
Can result in invaluable information
All the hundreds of hours of eavesdropping leave their mark, “Maria” attests – but in the end the work pays off because invaluable information can trickle out between unpleasant bragging and explicit phone sex.
– It is not an easy task and it is also not possible to filter the conversations on keywords such as “bomb” or the like, says “Maria”.
Despite the large volume of conversations “Maria” has listened to, only once has a person expressed views that go against the Kremlin. It was about a woman, a soldier’s wife, who believed that what Russia was doing was wrong.
– At first I didn’t believe it and thought she was joking or that I heard wrong. But it turned out that she was actually responsible for it – unfortunately, she was the exception, rather than the rule, she says.
Have quit – after all the horrible calls
In the end, all the hours of wiretapping took their toll on “Maria,” who recently transferred to another department within the security service.
– Being exposed to so much negativity every day was toxic. Now that I’ve quit, my life has become much more manageable, she says.