'Kill Your Commanding Officer': On the Front Lines of Putin's Digital War With Ukraine

[orangecrush]

Last edited Tue Feb 15, 2022, 11:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Vita wore digital camouflage, lipstick and a pair of diamond earrings. (Like most of the soldiers I spoke with, she provided only a first name.) She let her thoughts drift from her 16-year-old son, currently living with his grandmother, to the gnawing boredom of patrol, her head rolling back slightly to glimpse the sky above. She’d been on the front for at least two years, serving in the 24th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and was resigned to the silence of war and the potential for fatal whispers soaring overhead. In the trench beside her, next to a scrappy young Shepherd-mix panting at the sky, was a white antique side table. Vita placed the periscope on the table, inside the cabinet of which sat a hand grenade.

“There are a lot of snipers now, so we try not to go out,” Vita said. “You can’t see them from here. They’re too far away.”

.....

"
The Russians have for nearly a decade used Ukraine as a proving ground for a new and highly advanced type of hybrid warfare — a digital-meets-traditional kind of fighting defined by a reliance on software, digital hardware and cognitive control that is highly effective, difficult to counter and can reach far beyond the front lines deep into Ukrainian society. It is a type of high-tech conflict that many military experts predict will define the future of war. It has also turned Ukraine, especially its eastern provinces, but also the capital, into a bewildering zone of instability, disinformation and anxiety."

......


"The 24th Brigade first learned about the danger of carrying cell phones on the front lines years ago. On July 11, 2014, in the town of Zelenopillya, roughly five miles from the Ukrainian border with Russia, the brigade had planned to sever the supply line of the Donbas separatists when electronic warfare caught them by surprise. Witnesses described the scene to me: First there came the humming of an unmanned aerial vehicle able to clone cellular networks to locate active cellphones, followed by cyberattacks against Ukrainian command and control systems. Their communication systems disabled, Ukrainian forces were unable to coordinate with one another. Then, short-range rocket systems from inside Russia disabled two battalions, including T-64 tanks and amphibious tracked vehicles. Three trucks carrying troops exploded. Stumbling from the transport, one soldier clutched his entrails, and shouted for his mother. The attack killed 30 Ukrainians and wounded hundreds and lasted roughly two minutes."



https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/15/10-days-inside-putins-invisible-war-with-ukraine-00008529




Recommended reading to understand the situation on the ground at the Russian - Ukraine border.

Ukraine forces have resorted to using WW1 style trenches and field telephones with cables to avoid Russian electronic disruption of command comms.