As fighting rages in Ukraine, Ukrainian and American radio amateurs have intercepted hundreds of hours of unencrypted communications between different units of Russian ground fighters.
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Between the lines stand out their mistakes and setbacks. “We are retreating from the locality of Motijine and we are reversing. Let’s leave behind a damaged tank. Over”, can we hear in an excerpt. This is the first error of the Russian troops: to use these radio frequencies open to all, where they reveal without any caution their plans of attack, during the first days of offensive west of kyiv at the end of February.
“Our planes will start bombing in ten minutes, well received?”, we hear in an excerpt. Others provide evidence of what could one day be qualified as war crimes by international justice. “Order is issued to all Russian units to leave the residential area. Our artillery will target this area.” According to the American daily The New York Times, who collected and verified these radio intercepts, the Russian military’s amateurish use of these unencrypted waves enabled Ukrainian fighters to identify, locate and kill at least one Russian general.
“Give me their fucking position, we gotta hit, we’re gonna tear those bastards to pieces. Over!”
On some recordings we hear Russian soldiers on the verge of tears, announcing that they are hit or that they are retreating under Ukrainian fire… Others are crying out for air support or supplies, gasoline, weapons , water or food that does not arrive. “It’s been an hour since we asked you for aircraft reinforcements! You fucking forgot!”they beg.
The Ukrainian radio amateurs who monitor these open frequencies do not hesitate to jam Russian communications, with the means at hand: insults, cries of pigs, a metal version of the Ukrainian national anthem… The Russians seem to have understood their mistake since they now go much more through encrypted radio channels or communications in coded language.
Ukraine: hacked radio communications – Report by Camille Magnard
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