Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russia's periodic shutdowns of mobile Internet services are crippling its air defences, according to Russian warbloggers. Shutdowns frequently take place to hinder Ukrainian drone attacks, but are disrupting coordination of Russian air defence units. ⬇️

https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1958805124668616856

2/ Both Ukrainian and Russian drones have used mobile Internet services for navigation. To combat this, local Russian officials have ordered shutdowns during drone alerts, which has caused disruption for ordinary people, chaos for the economy, and hindrance to the air defences.

3/ Mobile Fire Groups (MOGs) are a key part of these defences, comprising tactical units equipped with portable air defence systems and tasked with providing rapid, flexible, and mobile air defense coverage, often deployed to protect specific areas.

4/ However, Russian warbloggers say the shutdowns are disastrous for the MOGs, as they are wholly dependent on mobile messengers (such as Telegram or WhatsApp, both recently partly blocked in Russia) to coordinate between units.

5/ The Crimea-based blogger '13 Tactical' writes:

"It so happened that by the end of the fourth year of the war, the only stable and constant communication between units is mobile Internet.

I am deliberately not writing in which messenger, so as not to go against the wind."

6/ "Whether this is bad or very bad is not important. This is a fact. Which all sorts of people are trying to hush up, reporting the opposite to the top.

Disabling mobile Internet ruins coordination.

7/ "I am ready to personally bring a report to the responsible officials, speak out and justify why disabling mobile Internet is sabotage against ourselves.

8/ "During the active practice of disconnecting, the number of accurate [drone] arrivals and hits has not decreased! This does not give dependence and a positive result.

On the contrary, much, much [more] could have been intercepted due to the interaction of different units."

9/ 'Veterans' Notes' complains: "Disabling mobile Internet during an attack by enemy UAVs is absolutely useless. Moreover, as a colleague from Crimea correctly noted, it harms the groups that are fighting these very drones."

10/ "Coordination between MOGs occurs through closed chats in instant messengers. And there is no other way for now. Due to the disconnection of the Internet, there is a simple collapse of coordination, as a result of which chaos and disorder begin to happen.

11/ "Recently, while working as part of a MOG covering Belgorod, I personally observed the coordinated work of everyone involved in repelling attacks on the city. The main coordination was done via the Internet. Fast, convenient and most importantly – effective.

12/ "Only trusted people are in closed chats, who are added on recommendation. For those who are worried about secrecy, no secret information is published there, only an indication of UAV flights with the name of the aircraft, altitude and control frequencies and video signal.

13/ "The work is coordinated and clear. And all this because in Belgorod they do not turn off mobile Internet. In general, it is necessary to stop this useless practice."

'Ghost of Novorossiya' confirms that "it is absolutely useless. And in some places even harmful."

14/ "Here we can adopt the experience of Donetsk. They don't do such crap here.

It doesn't remove the issue of UAV attacks, but it also doesn't interfere with the interaction of units and services.

15/ "Disabling the mobile Internet on the mainland [i.e. in Russia] is exclusively an initiative of officials on the basis of "just in case" so that they can then report that measures have been taken and the work has been done. Useless, but that's it.

16/ "To a certain extent, because of these useless initiatives of officials, the Ukrainians achieve their local goals of terrorist attacks.

17/ "When a relatively small resource (and this is a small resource) achieves a hyperreaction from the authorities, complicating and limiting both the life of the population and the work of structures and departments." /end

Sources:
🔹 nytimes.com/2025/07/28/wor…
🔹 t.me/tactical_13/81…
🔹 t.me/notes_veterans…
🔹 t.me/ghost_of_novor…