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In reporting on the course of the Ukraine war, the Western media often gave a rather one-sided picture: on the one hand, the Ukrainian army, which defended its country with clever tactics, a lot of creative skill and heroic courage. On the other hand, the Russian armed forces, who fearfully disintegrate and flee at the first counter-attack, whose military equipment is dilapidated and has no idea of ​​organized warfare.

A study by the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security (Rusi), a London-based security policy think tank, now finds that this perception is subject to a dangerous black and white painting. Accordingly, in the fifteen months of the war, the Russian invaders learned in many areas.

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One of these areas is electronic warfare. “The Russian military is increasingly using jammers to prevent aircraft from communicating on the battlefield,” the study authors write. This mainly refers to the electronic combat of drones, which are mainly used for enemy reconnaissance. “This leads to a loss of about 10,000 Ukrainian drones per month.” So more than 300 drones per day.

Captured radios as an important piece of the puzzle

In particular, the Russian Shipovnik aerosystem has proved useful to the invaders. This is a so-called jammer, which uses electromagnetic waves to break the connection between the drones and their pilot on the ground. The drone can no longer be controlled and falls out of the sky.

The Russian forces also use the 14Ts227 Tobol. This jammer was originally intended to protect Russian satellites against enemy electronic attacks in space. However, according to a Washington Post report, the giant jammer could have been used to interrupt the Starlink connections Ukrainian troops use to communicate in the war zones.

Another finding of the military experts should also be of concern from a Ukrainian point of view. For example, Putin’s soldiers succeed time and time again in hacking into the radio equipment of the Ukrainians. These mainly use Motorola radios with 256-bit encryption.

But since the Russians confiscate radios and Ukrainian units apparently don’t change their encryption codes often enough, Putin’s military can eavesdrop on enemy communications in real time. For example, Ukrainian attack plans could be intercepted before they were actually carried out. The Russians could then prepare in peace, write the Rusi authors.

Nothing has improved on one point

European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) military expert Gustav Gressel sees this as “a serious danger,” he told editorial network Germany (RND). “The reconstruction of the course of the battle shows that the Russians were well aware of some of the operations of the Ukrainian units.” This means high losses for the Ukrainian army.

But the Russian attackers apparently learned something new over the course of the war, and not just in electronic warfare. In terms of infantry deployment, armored brigade actions and general tactics to defend their own positions, the Ukrainians now face a much better prepared enemy.

According to Rusi, little has been improved on only one point: the insufficient recruitment of large Russian troops. “The most obvious weakness of Russian infantry units is their low motivation.” (t-online, cc)