The Russian communications equipment is assumed to have failed. The Ukrainians announced that a general made a phone call on an open line. The Ukrainians used the GPS location of the call to target the caller. If this is what happened, first, they shouldn’t have revealed how it was done. The Russians will revert to smoke signals. Second, it means the Russian military equipment has really deteriorated. (Now it could have been that the equipment didn’t get the encryption code of the day and thus wouldn’t work.)
An earlier death was announced over the open channel radio by a soldier telling his buddy the general had just been killed. Apparently, a lot of soldiers were not aware they were not on an exercise and were just taken prisoner because they walked up to the Ukrainians to ask directions. But that was on day one. The overall tone of the operation is like a Buster Keaton movie. (Yes, I’m dating myself. But I only do that because I know I’m easy.)
Good question as to whether it was a good idea to explain how the Ukes traced a phone call. But the upside is that if Ivan’s comms are down they wouldn’t know anyway. And they’ve probly been told not to believe anything they hear from a Uke anyway. So it’s all good. Like the old joke: hey Ivan is that you?
The Russians will revert to smoke signals.They can do because a lot of their destroyed armor is smoking.
I saw a picture of equipment supposedly taken off of a dead Chechen fighting for Russia. Part of the kit was a motorola HT1250 pprtable radio. I used those at work, and they’re short- range without signal repeaters. They’re also not built for military use. Their durability in combat situations is questionable.
FWIW.
CC