Comment by octoberfranklin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by octoberfranklin | Hacker News Reader

octoberfranklin

I am very surprised that the Russian military hasn't simply cut all the fiber optics running into and out of the areas where they're operating. Does anybody have insight on this?

Fiber isn't hard to find. The aerial stuff is unmistakable (snowshoes or other slack-loop storage). The buried stuff has conductive marker tape, like the stuff used for locating buried power lines but with a different resonant frequency.

It can't be that hard to find the few fiber optic arteries into/outof the next city they want to crap all over and cut each trunk once.

Would love to know why this hasn't been done. Obviously I would not make a good general.

Edit: okay, the article mentions this, claiming that the Russians don't have VHF radios, which I find to be an utterly ridiculous claim. This is 1960's (or earlier!) technology folks. Does not pass the smell test. Even if they've resorted to "civilian handheld radios", those don't need cell towers or fiber optics.

Early on, it was rumored that Russian troops were under orders to not damage infrastructure. That makes sense especially if they expected to take the country without much of a fight. Even so, one stereotypical difference between American and Russian approaches to war is that Americans try to bomb everything to rubble before sending in troops, while Russians try to preserve infrastructure they can use once they capture territory.

Usually the military doesn't target infrastructure they'll need themselves.

I've seen various Ukranian sources mention Starlink as a useful comms tool.

Sure, but I don't see how the Russians need the Ukranian fiber optic network or cell network. By all reports it's being used against them quite effectively.

Military orders go over VHF radio, not cell networks.

I have a hard time believing that Russia is incapable of invading countries without cell towers (although it would be cool if that were true!)

> I've seen various Ukranian sources mention Starlink as a useful comms tool.

That's actually yet another reason for them to take out the fiber optics. Starlink only reaches a hundred miles or so; beyond that it needs fiber.

Bit of a late reply but fyi - the Russians have been using cell networks to communicate military orders, which is perhaps the piece of the puzzle you were missing.

> Usually the military doesn't target infrastructure they'll need themselves.

Apparently the Russians destroyed mobile towers despite their own encrypted phones relying on civilian 3G/4G infrastructure:

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/ukraine-russian-m...

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