Cell phone prohibition is more about optics than about security

This is what a Russian soldier, who contacted CBC, suggested in rebuttal to the reason given by the Russian government about how the Ukrainians successfully targeted a building in Makiivka. The Russians were using this area to house both soldiers and rounds. This Russian soldier did not have many pleasing things to say about his commanders, even describing them as being drunk. He details a lot of his experiences in Ukraine.

From CBC:

The soldier, stationed near Makiivka, messaged CBC News over the course of a week and expressed confusion, stress and mistrust of his commanders, who he accused of frequently being drunk.

He said they would frequently ask the soldiers for money, saying it was needed for important equipment.

The soldier said he has only been in Ukraine for six weeks, and was drafted outside his home in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, which lies more than 1,200 kilometres east of Moscow. In order to help verify his story, he shared a copy of his identity documents and draft papers.

He says he regrets not immediately heading for the border like the hundreds of thousands of other Russian men who flocked to Georgia, Finland and Kazakhstan in an effort to escape the draft.

The soldier doesn’t have an international passport and has a wife and young daughter at home.

At the beginning of the conversation, the soldier sounded defiant and spoke about how he would rather be sent to jail than to the front. But days later, his tone was more resigned, and he spoke about the potential consequences of deserting.

“There are many of us who do not want to fight, including me, but we do not know what to do, he wrote.

“There’s no way out.”

Cell phone signals

On Jan. 4, when Russian Lt.-Gen. Sergei Sevryukov announced that 89 soldiers had been killed in the rocket strike, he blamed the soldiers themselves for inadvertently giving away their location by using their cell phones, which Sevryukov said was banned.

The soldier described that accusation as “bullshit,” saying his peers and commanders frequently used their phones with local SIMs to call home. While they were told not to use them, he understood that was because they didn’t want them taking any photos or posting videos complaining about the conditions.

In recent months, videos have been posted to social media platforms of newly drafted soldiers showing off their inadequate equipment and lack of training.

After weeks of controversy around the country’s “partial mobilization” campaign, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on Oct. 28, that 300,000 had been called up and mobilization was over.

But there was never an official decree, and some say there are reports of men continuing to receive draft papers ordering them to report to an enlistment office.

“Mobilization is still underway,” said Boris Bondarev, a former diplomat who quit his post at Russia’s UN mission in Geneva last May in protest over what he called Russia’s “aggressive war.”

In an online statement posted after his resignation, Bondarev called the war “not only a crime against the Ukrainian people,” but also “the most serious crime against the people of Russia.”

He dismissed speculation by Ukrainian officials who have stated that they believe the Russian government will start calling men up en masse starting in mid-January. He says he doesn’t think the government needs to announce a new round of mobilization because the defence ministry can just continue drafting people on a “daily basis,” particularly from Russia’s remote, poorer regions.

The CBC has additional information here.

Category: Russia, Ukraine