The Ukraine War Gets Worse for Russia: During the Second World War, throughout the United States and the United Kingdom posters warned that “loose lips sink ships.” It was just one of several themes cautioning how “careless talk costs lives.” It may seem like hyperbole and even fear-mongering as one poster showed a dead U.S. soldier with the warning, “Careless talk got there first.”
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Perhaps such posters could make a return across Russia; as “careless talk” may have resulted in the deaths of hundreds over the weekend in Ukraine. Ukrainian officials had successfully targeted a Russian military dormitory, housing new recruits in the Donbas region by listening into their unsecured cellular phone conversations.
It is just the latest debacle from Kremlin forces, which are now engaged in the 10th month of fighting in Ukraine.
“It has already become obvious at present that the main cause of the occurrence was activation and large-scale use, contrary to the ban, of personal phones by personnel within the reach of enemy’s destruction means,” First Deputy Head of the Main Military-Political Department of the Russian Armed Forces Lieutenant General Sergey Sevryukov told reporters on Wednesday, according to a report from Tass.
“This factor enabled the enemy to take the bearing and determine coordinates of servicemen location to deliver a missile strike. Required measures are being taken at present to exclude such tragic incidents in the future,” added Sevryukov.
The state media outlet also reported that a commission charged to investigate the circumstances of the incident is working and required measures will be taken to “exclude such tragedies” in the future.
Ukraine War High Death Toll for Russia
Moscow has claimed that 89 soldiers were killed in the weekend strike on the building that served as a former vocational school in the Russian-occupied town of Makiivka. Kyiv’s forces claim that hundreds of Russian troops were in the building.
Ukrainian forces had fired six rockets from a U.S.-provided HIMARS multiple launch system at the building where the soldiers were stationed. Two rockets were downed by Russian air defense systems, while four hit the building and detonated, prompting the collapse of the structure.
A memorial service was held on Tuesday in Samara, in southwestern Russia, where mourners laid flowers and held a minute’s silence for the dead, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
Russian Cover-up
Though it is likely that the mobile phones may have helped Ukrainian officials target the facility, analysts have suggested there were other factors at play.
“Given the extent of the damage, there is a realistic possibility that ammunition was being stored near to troop accommodation, which detonated during the strike creating secondary explosions,” the UK’s Ministry of Defence suggested via a series of tweets on Wednesday. The MoD added that the Russian military has a record of “unsafe ammunition storage from well before the current war” and noted that “this incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate.”
The building that was struck by the Ukrainian missile was little more than 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the front lines, and is within what has been described as “one of the most contested areas of the conflict.”
There has been outrage in Russia, with many pro-war bloggers and journalists expressing frustration at this latest military failure.
“The story of ‘mobiles’ is not very convincing,” Semyon Pegov, a Russian war correspondent who was recently awarded an Order of Courage from Vladimir Putin, said in a Telegram post on Wednesday, NBC News reported. “I rarely say this — but this is the case when it would probably be better to remain silent, at least until the end of the investigation. As such it looks like an outright attempt to smear the blame.”
According to the most recent estimates posted by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Russia has lost an estimated 2,230 personnel in just three days of fighting. That would bring the number of Russian dead in Ukraine to an estimated 108,190 since the war began on February 24, 2022. Moscow disputes the numbers.
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Author Experience and Expertise: A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
