After another missile attack on Odessa, a wave of outrage erupted online over the carelessness of local bloggers and government officials who released information that could have helped the enemy. Military commentator Oleksandr Kovalenko points out that this became a direct target for Russian missiles.
Today, at 11:54, a Russian 9M723 OTRK Iskander-M ballistic missile was launched from the territory of temporarily occupied Crimea towards Odessa. The time of arrival and the strike task was 11:57. Previously, the strike was corrected by the Orlan-10 reconnaissance UAV, which was recorded heading towards Odessa at around 11:00.
This strike caused not only a tragedy that claimed 10 lives and maimed 47 people, but also a wave of terrible conspiracy theories, manifestations of human stupidity that fueled Russian propaganda, as well as very strange official statements.
But let's talk about everything in turn.
First of all, I would like to note that Odessa is regularly shelled with 9M723 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, which can only be intercepted by long-range Patriot and SAMP/T air defense systems. It is impossible to do so with anything else, whether it is the Strela-10, Buk-M1 air defense systems, NASAMS, IRIS-T, or even the S-300, in the modifications that are on the balance sheet of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Russian occupiers continued their systematic terror of the city, which is the most important as a maritime and transport hub, using a constant scenario of launching a reconnaissance UAV first, and only after that, using a means of destruction.
Therefore, the fight against reconnaissance UAVs should be discussed on a par with the threat of ballistic strikes. Today, the shooting down of the Orlan-10 at 11:45 was preceded by the launch itself. But in this material I will not talk about countering UAVs, about which more than enough has already been said, but about other things. Universal, let's say.
After the explosion in Odessa, Russian propaganda outlets started talking about the location where the “successful” strike was carried out, where one specific institution was located. We put a mark here — we will remember this paragraph.
Literally in a few minutes… A few minutes! In Odessa publics, social networks, especially Telegram, are starting to spread massively videos from the scene of the tragedy, which not only allow us to establish the geolocation of the arrival, but also the extent of the destruction. In addition, a video of the alleged shooting down of a 9M723 missile appears, which got online around 12:00 and was not posted by anyone but a lazy person until 12:15.
Meanwhile, all these photos and videos, in the first minutes after the Russian occupiers struck Odessa, from the scene of the tragedy allow the enemy to conduct additional reconnaissance without involving UAVs and other means. Odessans themselves massively tipped off the enemy and provided unique intelligence information!
Anyone who posted a video with shouts of “F*ck, what a nightmare!” was actually exposing themselves and their surroundings to a second strike. Each of these videos was a source of information for the enemy and a prompt response to a satisfactory or not satisfactory result.
It would seem that in the third year of a full-scale war, we are constantly hearing from all screens: do not take videos and photos of air defense operations, do not take photos of landing sites, do not post all this on the network of various shitty publics. But no, the lemming gene in society has not been eradicated.
The most surprising were the individuals who, supposedly, are not just civilians, so they should be well versed in what information is, which is quickly merged into the network. But no... Within half an hour, a number of Odessa LOMs, let's call them that, were already talking about the tragedy in the first person, being in the epicenter of the destruction.
Self-preservation instinct? No, we haven't heard of it. Expose rescuers, medics, firefighters, and your loved ones to a second attack? Yes, always ready!
I think that not all the actors who were riding the hype of the tragedy today fully understood the threat they were under and the threat they were exposing those around them to.
I don't know how else to explain to people who film missile strikes and post information on social media to attract attention that it's best to do this after first aid has been provided to the victims, an hour or two later, so as not to endanger everyone around and not provide the enemy with operational intelligence. Maybe some kind of law needs to be passed? Has it already been passed, but it doesn't work because it's not being enforced? I'm not a lawyer, so it's not my specialty, I don't know.
But civilians are one thing, and officials are another.
Officials also distinguished themselves. For example, by reporting that a 9M723 missile was shot down over Odessa. Of course, when a missile is shot down, the fragments fall down, so there can be no blame on the air defense. The blame lies solely with the occupiers. Anyone who tries to manipulate this topic is an enemy a priori. And if the missile had not been shot down, the consequences and casualties would have been much more serious and greater.
But, given the official statement, we can conclude that Patriot or SAMP/T air defense systems have already been deployed in the Odessa area, because, as I noted above, nothing else can intercept ballistics. That is, the fact that Odessa is covered by these complexes has been officially, latently, confirmed.
In fact, this latent confirmation was made much earlier. On the night of November 17, Kh-22 missiles were launched at Odessa and the region, and, according to official statistics, they were shot down during that day. But they were also shot down by either the Patriot air defense system or the SAMP/T. That is, a person who is familiar with the capabilities of air defense guessed this from hints, but how many joyful exclamations did you hear about the Kh-22s being shot down and why did it happen?
No. And rightly so. Because most of those who guessed understand that good news requires silence.
Next. Statistics of the dead.
As I wrote above, the Russian missile killed 10 and injured 47 people. But I personally have a question: who thought of specifying the exact professions of the dead? After all, it was based on this information that the Russian occupiers also drew conclusions about the results of the strike. Instead of generalized data, someone decided to provide detailed data. Here's the question: why does everyone need to know that investigators and escorts are among the dead?
I understand perfectly well that this note can cause a wave of negativity from different sides. But if everyone who leaked more information to the enemy today than one could imagine, and this applies to both snails with smartphones running over corpses, both stung, and official structures that made a series of punctures, has something to say in their defense. OK. I admit my mistake and agree that in the third year of a full-scale war it is normal to photograph the places of arrival, inform the enemy what was shot down, and detail the losses among representatives of the security forces.
