“Our fighter planes start bombing in ten minutes. You understood me ? » The Russian recipient who receives this radio transmission from a soldier on the Ukrainian front has received the information – and he is not the only one. Ukrainian soldiers and anyone who knows how to intercept unsecured radio communications could hear it too. The Russian army may be one of the most powerful in the world, but it uses public radio waves (and therefore accessible to anyone who wants to listen) for some of its strategic communications on the battlefield.
As already explained it Release March 9, images from the ground have shown for several weeks that Russian soldiers are using unprotected civilian radios. Several radio amateurs – specialists or volunteers capable of picking up, thanks to radio receivers, exchanges broadcast on free waves – were thus able to listen to and record communications from the Russian army.
the New York Times got a hundred concerning the battles around Makariv, at the end of February, west of kyiv. Cross-checked with videos and testimonies on the ground, they highlight a form of unpreparedness, even amateurism, of the Russian forces in the first days of the conflict.
Recklessness also of the generals
The American daily published in a video, Wednesday, March 23, excerpts from these exchanges during which Russian units reveal, on unsecured frequencies, strategic information on their military actions, in progress or to come, or on their positions. One thus announces the imminent attack of fighter planes. Another states that his unit “withdraws from Motyjyn” by abandoning an armored vehicle “damaged”.
“Decision has been made to withdraw all Russian units from the residential area, artillery will target the area”, warns another Russian soldier on the airwaves, publicly disclosing the explicit order to target a residential area. According to New York Times, residents of Makariv and surrounding areas confirmed that the Russians had indeed fired indiscriminately at their homes. “It could be a war crime”writes Christiaan Triebert, one of the authors of the survey.
In another transmission, we hear the repeated order to cover the entire residential neighborhood with artillery af… https://t.co/z8gb0jBoLf
The use of these unencrypted communications is not the prerogative of ordinary soldiers and has serious consequences for Vladimir Putin’s forces. According to New York Timesgenerals also used unsecured radios and phones, which allegedly enabled Ukrainian forces to track down, locate and kill at least one of them.
Jamming Ukrainians
These recordings, in which soldiers caught under the fire of bullets, sometimes panicked and on the verge of tears, cry out for help, are also devastating for the image of the Russian army. They also corroborate the videos of broken down tanks or soldiers without supplies which surprised many analysts at the start of the conflict. “Urgent need for fuel, water and food supplies”thus claims a unit close to Makariv, at the end of February.
In these communications the organizational and logistical failures of the Russian forces are apparent. Witness this tense exchange between two units:
“- YUG-95: Request air support from Lampas, from helicopter, do you receive me?
– BURAN-30: YUG-95, received. I can’t reach Lampas.
– YUG-95: Received. Try again, try again. The guys are hurting. »
Half an hour later, the same YUG-95 speaks again to BURAN-30: “You forgot the fucking air support!” You fucking forgot! »
In this series of exchanges, we hear how comms failures delay urgent requests for Russian air support amid mounting… https://t.co/bkIRoukdIw
This use of unprotected radio frequencies is the door open to interceptions, but also to jamming and interference, which the Ukrainian forces have not deprived themselves of. In exchanges published by Release, we hear for example the Ukrainian anthem broadcast in the middle of an exchange between Russian units. In those of New York Times, BURAN-30, visibly in difficulty, asks for a “back-up solution”. A Ukrainian responds: “Go home, Buran. Better to be a deserter than a fertilizer. »
According to the American media, the Russians have understood their mistakes and now use more coded language and secure phones, but some of their communications are still accessible. Proof that, if the painful advance of the Russians in Ukraine owes much to the resistance of the attacked country, it is not foreign, far from it, to the internal fragilities of the forces of Moscow.