Russia to punish soldiers for using personal mobile phones in Ukraine

Russia enacted a law this week allowing military unit commanders to detain soldiers in military prisons for up to ten days if they are caught using personal mobile phones while fighting in Ukraine.

The law prohibits soldiers from owning electronic devices “for household purposes” where they can store and share “audio, photo, video materials, and geolocation data” over the internet. The restrictions also apply to the online distribution of any information related to the operations of the Russian army.

Military commanders can punish soldiers for disobeying the law without waiting for a court decision. Russian lawmakers said the goal of the ban is to “ensure the safety of its military personnel” and that the law would not affect the use of military phones, without specifying how they would be distinguished from those used by soldiers today.

One of the initiators of the law, head of the State Duma Committee on Defense Andrey Kartapolov, said that the Ukrainian military can identify Russian soldiers thanks to the signal from their devices.

Militaries around the globe in recent years have reexamined their cell phone policy following security revelations. In 2018, the U.S. military banned the use of geolocation features while in “operational areas” following reports that a fitness app had revealed U.S. military bases.

Russian servicemen and military bloggers criticized the decision. Some said that given Russia’s failure to provide reliable communication to its military, many soldiers rely on their phones and the Telegram messaging app.

“Our unit uses all available means of communication, including the internet. Experienced soldiers know where and when it is better to leave the phone turned off, what SIM cards to use, what they can and cannot film or write,” said Dmitry Rogozin, senator of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast and the former head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos.

“Before you ban something, you need to create something else. Otherwise, apart from causing colossal harm to the army, nothing will come of it,” Rogozin added.

Russian soldiers interviewed by local media called the ban “stupid and pointless,” as mobile phones have become an essential part of modern warfare and are used for navigation, communication, and collecting information about the military.

Russian military bloggers, who report about the situation on the frontline on their Telegram or YouTube channels, told local media that the Kremlin likely initiated the ban so soldiers couldn’t speak up online about the problems in the military.

Military personnel regularly record video messages from the front, in which they complain about the lack of shells and the actions of their commanders — these recordings are then distributed by the media.

“There is no doubt that the main reason for the ban is that the ugly truth often leaked through the smartphones of soldiers and commanders, causing irritation to the military leadership,” said Oleg Tsaryov, a former separatist official in Russian-occupied territories of eastern Ukraine.