How phone calls made on battlefield have brought deadly consequences in Russia-Ukraine war

Communicating with a loved one on frontline is not a harmless act anymore, at least not in war raging between Russia and Ukraine which has reached a point where doing so could le to lethal consequences. war has transcended to cellular realm, where one force could target or simply by tracking cell phones.

Soldiers on both sides of battle have been urged to be wary of using ir mobiles to contact family members due to dangers it can pose. In Russia, death of hundreds of servicemen has been attributed to use of mobile phones, which could possibly have been tracked to launch Monday’s strike on city of Makiivka.

But how are phones being weaponised? 

As technology vances, systems possess ability to determine a phone’s location by accessing an internal GPS. In Ukraine, Russian forces have been putting Leer-3 electronic warfare system to use in order to locate positions of Ukrainian servicemen. 

system, which consists of two drones and a command truck, is equipped to locate over 2,000 phones within a wide range of 3.7 miles, according to Sky News. On or side of war, Ukraine’s intelligence is believed to be relying on a similar system. In March 2022, American officials told New York Times that a top Russian general was killed after he me a phone call that was tracked by Ukraine.

Researchers at Copenhagen University have termed phone calls as " digital version of carelessly lighting a cigarette at night.” As a result of weaponisation of phone calls, Ukrainian army ordered servicemen to abide by a list of rules. Some of orders on list include “Leave your own SIM card at home,” “Always keep your phone off. Your life depends on it. Gr missiles will hit your whole squ,” and “Watch over your comres – a friend calls his girlfriend and an hour or so later your position gets shelled or attacked.” 

What makes phone calls more life-threatening aren’t devices mselves, but also ir users. It is likely for soldiers to develop a pattern of negligently using ir phones if doing so for first time does not yield a disastrous result. However, sometimes, usage comes out of pure boredom. "Sitting out re in dugouts, trenches and bunkers for days and even weeks with nothing to do, people start going out of ir hes. You need something to take your mind off of things,” one soldier stationed in Donbas told a researcher.