This week, Russia’s parliament, the Duma, proposed a new law banning infantrymen in a fight zone from a telephone that can take video, record audio or use satellite navigation. Under the new law, any soldier stuck a smarttelephone would be to blame of a serious disciplinary offense, punishable through up to 10 days in detention.
The law has sparked cries of outrage online from the front lines (possibly from infantrymen employing smartphones) because, while everyone acknowledges they can be dangerous, such devices are imperative to Russian forces. A total ban would likely backfire, but the Russian parliament may still have to hold it to prevent infantrymen from sharing videos of the real situation in Ukraine.
Consumer phones are fundamentally insecure devices that can be detected, tracked, and attacked by enemy forces with appropriate electronic warfare equipment.
In January 2023, Ukraine forced a Russian base in the occupied Donetsk region away from telephone traffic and attacked it with a missile, killing about a hundred soldiers.
There have been many other similar incidents. The Swedish cybersecurity company ENEA has published a detailed report on telephone monitoring on the Ukrainian battlefield. They note that this can take place at three other levels: physical monitoring of the telephone as a radio transmitter, network monitoring through the telephone system, and monitoring by malware or other means.
“What was surprising was the greater use of these mobile phones, and advertising communications in general, by the armed forces,” says the report’s author, Cathal McDaid, generation director at ENEA. “If mobile devices are used, as is becoming increasingly common, then they should be used sparingly and with safeguards. “
ENEA recommends anyone calling into a fight zone not to bring a SIM card from outside the zone, but to get one locally from a trusted source. They’ll have to move at least 400 yards away from their position on the team to make a call. and bring a friend to watch their backs while they call. They will also have to assume that the enemy can heed their calls.
Both sides have made great efforts to find and analyze phone traffic and target phone users. So why allow infantry soldiers to have smartphones?
One answer is that a ban would have a very negative effect on morale and would still be completely effective. Phones are an integral component of daily life. A recent Kyiv Independent article about a day in the life of a Ukrainian children’s inspector noted that “most people go out to sleep more when they have the chance, and when they are awake, they crawl under the net, drink coffee and spend time on your phone.
Contact with family, in addition to being able to decompress by watching videos of kittens, is psychologically valuable. Interestingly, the smartphone game World of Tanks has a cult following among Ukrainian soldiers, to the point that its creators responded by launching a charitable initiative to help them.
Phones are widely used in prisons despite more productive efforts to keep them out, and a ban on their use in the military is unlikely to be more effective.
But there are other reasons why infantrymen want phones. The trendy smartphone is a rugged and compact PC, as well as a communication device, with built-in satellite location that increases its capabilities.
A 2023 US military report on use in Ukraine says that “smartphone use…transforms command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) on the battlefield.
The report cites apps such as Liveuamap, which uses resource knowledge to provide a real-time picture of the conflict, and an app developed by Russian infantry soldiers that triangulates the location of artillery fire from its sound. (Ukraine has implemented this on a larger scale with Sky Fortress, an array of thousands of static smartphones to track Russian drones. )
Smartphones can also be used as drones if a compromised unit is not available
A Russian soldier quoted via WarTranslated about lack of controllers). They also transfer unclassified military documents and maintain secure conversations on Telegram about tactics, as well as the acquisition of essential equipment.
According to the blogger, it turns out that the Russians use their smartphones due to the lack of other radio communications, including to adjust artillery fire and coordinate with neighboring units. Without smartphones, general operations would be impossible.
“I wonder if the endless stupidity of other people in the army will ever end,” the blogger laments, suggesting that members of the Duma’s defense committee test the command of a unit without a smartphone and see how easily they succeed.
Since Russian infantrymen have had smartphones on the front lines for more than two years and are so important, why ban them now?
It is conceivable that the Duma cares less about protecting the foot soldiers than about its own position. Easy communication with space is a detrimental channel for Russians who need to find out what is happening in Ukraine without any influence from the state. media.
WarTranslated quotes a Russian army instructor as noting that the new law “can discern an absolutely sober and cynical calculation aimed at intentionally cutting off the flow of video recordings and calls discrediting army personnel. . . Because removing attacks is hard work, it’s indescribably less difficult to start a witch hunt against device owners. “
The challenge for the Russians is that they only have descriptions of mass casualties, equipment breakdowns and unhealthy situations for their foot soldiers in Ukraine, but they also have direct video calls to Putin, pleading to be sent to certain death.
Over time, this type of apparatus can shake the public’s confidence that the army’s special operation will continue as planned and that the leadership is aware of the situation.
Russia has the option of banning the phones, hampering the effectiveness of the fight, or allowing it to continue causing inevitable damage to its propaganda. However, it is more likely that we will see a leaked ban that puts an end to fight-related phone use while allowing a stream of destructive videos to escape onto the Internet.
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