From the advice of the Ukrainian army to its soldiers: Leave your phones at home!
“When you hear (the sound of) a drone, you have 5 seconds to get out and run, the missile is flying that fast,” the Ukrainian military advises its soldiers.
This advice was included in the list of Ukrainian army's advice to its soldiers to face the danger of using mobile phones in combat locations, according to a report by the British "Sky News" network.
And new evidence of the use of phone networks as a tool in the war raging in Ukraine has emerged since the end of February, with each side tracking the other's phones.
It is also possible for some tracking systems to determine the location of a mobile phone directly, when simulators are connected to it, for example by accessing the phone's global positioning system.
Whatever method of tracking is used, they all end up with a fairly reasonable result of locating who is using the phone, but the precise details of these systems remain a closely guarded military secret.
However, it has become known that the Russians are using the “Liar 3” system, which consists of two drones and a command center in a military truck, to track the locations of Ukrainian forces.
This system can detect more than 2,000 mobile phones at a range of up to 5.4 km, making it possible to find a whole group of hostile forces and it is believed that Ukrainian forces use similar technology.
In mid-March, US officials told the New York Times that at least one Russian general was killed after Ukrainian intelligence picked up his phone call.
The existence of such electronic warfare systems means that the ringing of the phone has become a "digital version of carelessly lighting a cigarette at night", an analogy used by researchers at the Danish University of Copenhagen to indicate the danger of using the phone in combat locations.
And the Ukrainian military has issued advice to its soldiers fighting Russian-backed separatists in the southeastern Donbass region, on the use of mobile phones, including:
Leave your phone and its SIM at home.
If you want to make a phone call, stay 400-500 meters from troop positions.
Don't go alone, take an armed friend with you to cover you.
The best place to make a phone call is in locations where there are a lot of civilians, preferably in newly liberated towns.
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