Technology enters the Russian-Ukrainian war with force, but who wins?

Throughout history, new technologies used in battles and wars have had a pivotal role in determining results on the field.

For example, the Hyksos’ use of horse-drawn carts had a key role in their defeat of the Egyptian army and the seizure of the country. Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror’s use of cannons, particularly the huge mortars that were used for the first time in history, played a decisive role in the Battle of Constantinople, the fall of the city in the hands of the Ottomans and the end of the Byzantine Empire.

The victory of the English King Henry V over the French in the "Battle of Agincourt" in 1415 was thanks to the newly developed archers and their long-range bows, as they rained the French with arrows from a long range that the French could not keep up to retreat defeated.

Advanced technology on the battlefield

In fact, there are very many examples in history about the adaptation and development of technology for use in the battlefield, and the Russian-Ukrainian war is no exception to this rule, as the two conflicting parties use the latest and latest technology in this bloody war.

From drones to tank hunters that use sophisticated algorithms to pursue and destroy their targets, to the high-precision long-range missiles used by Russian forces to destroy enemy supply lines, to the 3D printers used by Ukrainian forces to add tail fins to anti-tank grenades dating back to the 19th century. Soviet era.

As a result, a $100 grenade can destroy Russian vehicles costing millions of dollars.

All this and more than modern and advanced technologies used by the two warring armies on the battlefield, and the matter does not depend on the field, but goes beyond the battlefield, where social media, satellites and artificial intelligence are used extensively in this war by both parties.

3D printers used by Ukrainian forces to add tail fins to anti-tank grenades (networking sites)

Advanced technologies outside the field

Indeed, one welcome surprise of Putin's invasion of Ukraine was the apparent speed and effectiveness of Western governments' imposition of sanctions on Russia.

Within a short time, half of Moscow's $600 billion foreign reserves held in Western financial institutions were frozen, and the country was expelled from the Swift network, the vast messaging technology used by banks to transfer money around the world.

The services offered by PayPal, Visa and Mastercard also suddenly stopped operating in Russia, and there was an immediate ban on technology transfer from the West, as well as sudden sanctions against the oligarchy. Friendly to Putin and those who serve them in Western capitals, according to Professor John Naughton, professor of technology and author of the book "From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg: What you need to know about the Internet" in an article published by the British Guardian newspaper recently, in which he discussed some of the techniques used in this war. outside the battlefield.

The writer asserts that as a result of these sanctions, Russia began to face problems everywhere. It is true that it was able to achieve some successes here or there, but they were incomplete and even toxic successes in many cases.

For example, the Russian forces succeeded in seizing the advanced John Deere tractors in Ukraine and shipped them to Moscow, but when the lucky beneficiaries tried to operate these wonderful machines, they discovered the surprise that the manufacturer disabled them remotely, and turned them into mere tons Iron is useless.

Perhaps this is why many Western farmers hate John Deere tractors, because after they have paid a fortune for their new tractors, they find they are not allowed to fix them themselves if they malfunction, and any attempt to download bootleg diagnostic software Malfunctions with these machines will cause legal problems on the basis of the protection of intellectual property rights, and the user agreement concluded with the manufacturer that maintenance and repair must be carried out only by it.

The writer notes that Ukraine used another toxic technology, "face recognition" to identify the dead Russian soldiers, and quotes "Forbes" magazine as saying last March that Mikhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, confirmed his channel on Telegram reported that his country was using this technology to find the social media accounts of deceased Russian soldiers, allowing Ukrainian authorities to call their families and friends, and tell them about their deaths on the battlefield.

This Ukrainian official said that the goal was to dispel misinformation surrounding the war in the country, specifically Russian claims that it was just a special operation with few losses. He did not specify which specific technology was used, but his ministry later confirmed that it was using artificial intelligence, specifically a technology produced by Clearview A. Clearview AI provided it to the Ukrainian government free of charge.

In fact, this advanced technology produced by Clearview AL and backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel has caused a lot of controversy in the United States, and a group of senators last February issued a call to federal agencies to avoid using Its technology is "particularly dangerous" which "poses unique threats to black, other communities of color and immigrant communities".

Face recognition technology to find the social media accounts of deceased Russian soldiers (Shutterstock)

Blockchain is the most important technology and Russia's way to evade sanctions

These are some of the technologies used outside the field, but perhaps the most important technology, and it has recently become in everyone’s mind with regard to sanctions against Russia, as the writer refers to “Blockchain” technology, which is the technology that supports cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, where these currencies were It has been multiplying like wildfire over the past years, and its number has reached more than 11,000 digital currencies.

They all have one thing in common at their core which is that they are decentralized payment systems through which anyone in the world can transfer money to anyone anywhere else, and given that every part of the process is highly encrypted and not supervised by any trusted institution such as a central bank, It is clear that cryptocurrencies are very useful for money laundering and for evading sanctions.

Russia appears to be a crypto-savvy country with an official government report estimating holdings of cryptocurrencies at $200 billion, which represents, around 12% of the global total of these currencies.

Another report, conducted by a Singapore-based crypto portal, concluded that 17 million Russians own cryptocurrency, and that more than half a million Russian computer programmers work in this industry. President Vladimir Putin himself has advocated the use of surplus energy in cryptocurrency mining, as the writer mentioned in his article.

It seems clear that the Russian regime has a special strategy for using cryptocurrencies as a means to evade sanctions, undermine them, or at least limit their impact, and that these currencies will also be a viable option for Russian individuals seeking to protect their savings or trade with others outside the country.

For an economy as large as the Russian economy, crypto transactions of the size required to offset the impact of sanctions will be too great to be invisible to Western governments, which is why, perhaps for the first time in history, there is no technical solution to the problem that Putin left for his country and for the world.

Finally, and as history has always taught us, it is he who uses more advanced techniques and technology who will win the war.

However, in light of the tremendous technical development and advanced technological capabilities owned by both parties, victory will be bitter in taste this time. As Abraham Lincoln said, “There is no honorable way to kill, nor gentle ways to destroy, and there is no good in wars except their end.”