For Russian Soldiers in Ukraine, the Mobile Phone May Be as Mighty as the Sword

The other weapons at work. Images edited by Kevin Rothrock.

The other weapons at work. Images edited by Kevin Rothrock.

Russian soldiers are fighting Ukrainian “anti-terrorist” troops in eastern Ukraine. Officials in Kyiv say this is in essence a Russian invasion of Ukraine. In Moscow, the Kremlin says its servicemen now around Donetsk and Luhansk are actually “volunteers,” fighting alongside separatists while on leave from official duty. Even Russia’s nightly news now acknowledges the combat deaths of the country’s “selfless” heroes, who supposedly ran off to war, without even telling their wives or mothers.

The Russian government has done its best to control the public’s knowledge about Russian troop activity in Ukraine. No one, however, has challenged the Kremlin’s monopoly on military intelligence more than its own soldiers, who like most young people in Russia are avid social media users. Whether it’s covertly shelling targets inside Ukraine or secretly marching into the country itself, Russia’s enlisted men have repeatedly strayed “off message,” either by publishing evidence of illegal interventions or suddenly posting nothing at all, suggesting capture or death in combat.

Despite regulations against it, many Russian soldiers carry Internet-connected mobile devices, which they use to update their accounts on Vkontakte, Russia’s most popular online social network. In late July, following the first scandals on Vkontakte, a Duma deputy even drafted legislation banning “selfies” in the army.

This past weekend, the RuNet discovered a new reason to laugh about soldiers using the Web: a photograph of more than a dozen mobile phones nailed (through the screens) to a wooden board. The image, titled “Once Upon a Time in the Army,” appeared on the Vkontatke account of Aleksandr Kupin, 19-year-old soldier from St. Petersburg. Kupin’s photo has just 19 “likes” where he posted it on Vkontakte, but Ruslan Leviev, a liberal Russian blogger who opposes Moscow’s involvement in Ukraine, brought it more attention on Twitter:

Looks like the Russian Defense Ministry has decided to take certain measures. :)

For his part, Kupin told RuNet Echo that he didn’t actually take the photograph. “It was a joke, of course, as no one [in the army] has the right to break or destroy a cadet’s personal property.” Kupin also says the picture isn’t his—a friend sent it to him, and he simply republished it for kicks. “Just don’t start worrying,” Kupin asked. “Tell them that everyone in the army is happy,” he said finally, gesturing a thumbs-up.

Kupin is likely telling the truth about the photograph. In the image, the phones staked to the board are all considerably outdated, and the picture appeared at least five days earlier on pinterest.com with the caption “Whoever’s served in the army has encountered this!” The author of this earlier quip, incidentally, is a Kyiv-based woman named Tamara Gurzuff, a strongly anti-Russian blogger on Facebook and Twitter.

Kupin’s implication that no one in the Russian military is trying to restrict soldiers’ access to the outside world, however, doesn’t square with many other accounts. Indeed, just a couple of weeks ago, a report in Novaya Gazeta detailed how soldiers’ wives and mothers pack mobile phones into their men’s luggage secretly, in desperate attempts to keep them in contact. “They’re taking the phones—it’s an order—because [the Ukrainians] might be able to identify their troop number by the phone,” one paratrooper’s wife claimed to learn from her husband in mid-August.

In other words, the heyday of social media scoops from inside the Russian war machine may be over. Of course, some soldiers will still manage to sneak phones past inspection. What those wily few do with their cameras and keyboards is anybody’s guess.

6 comments

  • Visitor

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29109398

    That’s about eyewitnesses. However, “ear witnesses” are also important.

  • greg

    The fact that Russia is having problems with their solders using their cell phones tells you they are sending troops to Ukraine. If these solders were volunteers why would Russia care and what control would they have over them? One more example of Russian lies. Yes Russia is sending troops to Ukraine and things like this prove it.

  • baraba

    Who ever doubted that Russia is sending forces to Ukraine?

  • Jacob Schønberg

    Russia started this armed conflict in Donbass because they want to annex this area as they annexed Ossetias and Abkhasis in Georgia, and Crimea. The separatists was until 2 weeks ago led by Russian agents. Ukraine has several times been able to listen in to their conversasions, The mobile phones in the Russian army is not so revealing as the sattelite photoes

  • […] VKontakte shutting down a number of ISIS-related accounts, and the unwise use of social networks by Russian soldiers exposing their presence in Ukraine, the shadowy menace of “online extremists,” coupled […]

  • […] the lion’s share of what’s available. RuNet Echo has previously covered some of the cases, but there are a number of organized initiatives focused on particular aspects of fact-finding and […]

Join the conversation

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.

Receive great stories from around the world directly in your inbox.

Sign up to receive the best of Global Voices!

Submitted addresses will be confirmed by email, and used only to keep you up to date about Global Voices and our mission. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Newsletter powered by Mailchimp (Privacy Policy and Terms).

* = required field
Email Frequency



No thanks, show me the site