Sounds too dumb to be true. Especially since they were found out. There’s a message way above says “this link has been shared in public chats, please only share with friends.” And they go on recruiting more and more.
Yes, but I feel like the telegram channel is trolling based on that fact.
Is there any basis for these marks? Is it a common military practice? How was this done before internet existed? I just can’t understand what’s the point? What do you gain my marking trees and 10x10 meter flat lands? Can’t you just figure that out from a topological map and google earth? Russia probably still has all of the maps from the soviet times. Plus they can take pics from the satellite or planes.
What i have to say is mostly my own speculation, though based on what was posted in these channels said by MoD and other relevant sources. Take with a pound of salt.
Marks take several forms:
- There are fluorescent marks on paved surfaces and rooftops, as well as road signs bent upwards, which likely denote flat ground to land on, potentially.
- There are radar beacons, which presumably mark targets for further recognition through UAVs and shelling, or are somehow to be used for landings.
- There are strips of reflective tape, placed on building walls and lamp posts, which are almost certainly meant to aid navigation of troops on the ground.
- There are retroreflective survey markers, which are either used for navigation or are there just as a desinformation/fear induction method.
I have no clue if this kind of marks had any precedents, but it seems to be a necessary aid for navigation by paper maps:
- Road signs and asking civilians will not help, since those are actively taken down or can be deliberately misdirectional.
- Glonass is presumably to costly to equip everyone, or they just want a fallback.
- Things like safe places to land a helicopter can be extremely hard to deduce from satellite imagery and such and thus require a spotter on the ground and a way to designate a spot - thus, marks.
- This might also be a way to turn the eagerness to help of the civilian population against themselves by indirectly flooding phone lines of police and such with marker reports and all the paranoia associated with trying to find collaborationists and their marks.
new tech always tends to enable other new tech. also, maybe previously they depended more on deep infiltration by their own people in civilian clothes - those are also very active all around ukraine and actually they started showing up months before the invasion started. just 40-50yo dudes with very plain clothes and backpacks walking around the city. quite noticeable for locals that something was off about them. sadly the government or intelligence service didn't recognize the threat and take them out quick enough.
This would be dumb if true. Locals could place beacons near Russian troops and create friendly fire incidents or near soft civilian targets to cause war crimes to occur for propaganda purposes.
Putin doesn't need Ukrainian civilians to stage war crimes for him, he manages just fine by himself. Tolls of civilian casualties are skyrocketing since the first few minutes of the invasion. There's also tons of footage of russian rockets and missiles targeting civilian apartment complexes, or even carpet bombing intersections and the like.
Well in a sense, yes. There are uncountable videos of MLRS (Multiple-Launch rocket system) strikes, and by the nature of them, those are basically carpet bombing. While not actual bombs dropped from bombers, these rockets are meant to to destroy a large area of surface, not discriminating between soldiers and civilians, just like carpet bombing. Putin and is commiting war crimes every minute of this unjustified war he is forcing upon Europe. Keep in mind you have to separate the Russian people from Putin and also separate Russian Forces functionaries and High Command from the low ranks that are sent to their death, often just 18-20 years old and basically without any combat training. Truly a tragic war, while not unexpected or suprising, this is shattering the piece and fundamentals of democracy, international law and human rights. Don't let Putin get away with this atrocity, he needs to feel justice in the form of painful death!
Telegram is Pavel Durov’s product, who moved from Russia after Putin’s friends took over VK and fired him from the CEO position. Whoever is loyal to the Russian regime, it’s definitely not him.
