This is the incredible story of a pair of AirPods, these white, wireless headphones, sold for just under 200 euros. It is also the story of a Ukrainian, told by the Times from London.
It begins at the start of the invasion of Ukraine, at the end of February. The Russians progress towards kyiv and 25 kilometers from the capital, they reach Hostomel, a city known for its cargo airport. In the early hours, this airport was targeted by the Russian air force, which notably destroyed the only copy of the largest carrier aircraft in the world, the Antonov An-225 nicknamed Mriya, one of the emblems of Ukraine. .
Hostomel is where Vitaliy Semenets lives. His house is looted by Russian soldiers who leave in particular with his pair of AirPods, which are not only headphones despite their featherweight four grams. Inside each of them is a very small processor that allows them to geolocate themselves as soon as they are near other Apple brand devices: this ability to connect within a range of around ten meters is one of the benefits of Bluetooth.
This is how Vitaliy Semenets was able to follow the journey of his earphones, on his phone screen, by launching the “Localiser” application: the earphones are materialized in a small circle on a map of the region. And he was able to follow them, day after day, from the kyiv region to the Donbass. Vitaliy Semenets first understands that the Russians have given up, at least temporarily, on taking kyiv when he sees his headphones heading north and crossing the border with Belarus again.
First stop in the city of Gomel, the second largest city in the country. His AirPods will then restart, heading for Russia. Crossing the border and bypassing Ukraine to the south-east as far as Belgorod, 35 km from the border, on the Russian side. It was in the “white city” that two Ukrainian helicopters carried out a spectacular raid by firing missiles at a Russian refinery at the end of March. It is especially in Belgorod that the Kremlin has repositioned its troops, in view of the offensive on the Donbass which began this week.
The looting of this Ukrainian’s house would unfortunately not be an isolated case. The Russians allegedly stole much more than AirPods: washing machines, electric scooters, computers. Two tons of stolen objects were sent to Russia by about fifteen Russian soldiers from a post office in Belarus.
A Russian soldier had even received from a relative a real shopping list of goods to steal to bring them back to the country. In Irpin, a Russian soldier died after replacing the Kevlar protection of his bulletproof vest with a laptop computer, which he probably hoped to bring back to Russia.