While Russian forces are pushing for territorial gains in eastern Ukraine, they are turning to a military capability they largely abandoned during the war, but is expected to give them an advantage: electronic warfare.
After failing to overthrow the Ukrainian government earlier, the Russian military focused its offensive on the country’s eastern Donbass region, which is home to a large Russian-speaking population. New reports show that Russian forces are increasingly intercepting Ukrainian military communications while blocking navigation and guidance systems.
“They are jamming everything their systems can reach,” an employee of Aerorozvidka, a Ukrainian agency that develops drones and other military capabilities, told the Associated Press in a report released Friday. “We can’t say they dominate, but they hinder us a lot.”
According to the report, Russia has jammed GPS drone receivers used by Ukrainian forces used to locate and fire artillery at enemy targets.
Christian Bros., a former aide to Senator John McCain and author of The Chain of Murder, recalled a story by a Ukrainian officer who said the Russians killed a commander after tricking him into returning a wireless call from his mother, according to the report.
In a strategic change, Russian forces have begun to rely heavily on electronic warfare as they push into Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region, according to reports. The above armored vehicle was towed to a highway near the town of Soledar in Donbass on Friday, the 100th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. ARIS MESSINIS / Getty Images
After failing to capture the Ukrainian capital Kyiv at the start of the conflict, Russian redeployed forces in the eastern Donbass region appear to be achieving territorial success and ready to drive Ukrainian forces out of Severodonetsk.
Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kirilenko told Newsweek last month that victory in the region was central to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s propaganda campaign.
A report by the Congressional Research Service, published in April, said that “the Russian military does not seem to be using much of the systems and capabilities it gained before the invasion.”
“We have not seen what we believe is the full range of their e-war capabilities,” a senior Pentagon official said at a briefing in March.
US allies have previously warned about Russia’s ability to wage electronic warfare. A report by an Estonian think tank concluded that Russian technology “will pose a serious challenge to the proper planning and implementation of NATO’s defense of the Baltic states”.
Another report by the Janes Defense Brain Trust found that Ukraine had developed its own electronic warfare systems since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
As Russia launched its offensive in Donbass, the think tank said in April that the Russian military was increasing its use of electronic warfare, along with more drones and increased coordination of artillery maneuvers.
Russia may have refrained from using electronic warfare for fears that poorly trained technicians may not use it properly, the Associated Press reported.
“What we are learning now is that the Russians eventually turned it off because it interfered so much with their own communications,” retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a former U.S. military commander for Europe, told the Associated Press.
Newsweek asked the Russian government for comment.
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