turn off cell phones when night comes

On the Ukrainian front, the battle for the networks It has been escalating in importance over the months. Ukraine has been clear about this since a date to remember its troops took place. It happened with Operation Spiderwebwhen the Ukrainian Security Service smuggled small FPVs near five Russian air bases in trucks. The drones were launched and controlled via the Russian telephone system. The result: the destruction of at least ten strategic bombers.

That was recorded in Moscow, and now they are using it.

The transformation of the telephone. The war in Ukraine has turned something as everyday as mobile phones into a decisive system combat, revealing a profound change in the nature of modern conflict: civilian networks have become de facto military infrastructures, and every signal, every SIM, every tower and every data packet can be an offensive tool or a weak point.

Tension has escalated to such a point that Russia, unable to fully control how Ukraine exploits its cellular network to direct precision drones over long distances, has begun to cut off mobile service at night in entire regions. The situation illustrates a disturbing paradox: without mobile phones the aerial threat is limited, but with them civil life, emergencies, commerce and governance itself are kept functioning. For the first time, a great power is openly assuming a social and economic cost in exchange for stopping the advance of the connected war.

The tactical revolution. The ability of Ukrainian drones to use Russian infrastructure as if it were their own has been one of the most striking developments in the conflict. Cheap devices, such as DJI cellular donglesturn an FPV drone into a platform capable of operating hundreds or even thousands of kilometers from the pilot, as long as there is 4G coverage. As we said, that same technology allowed the famous Operation Spiderweb.

The pattern now repeats itself: Iranian Shahed modified with 4G modems that transmit video in real time, Ukrainian FP-1/2 drones that avoid defenses thanks to cellular links, or Russian Molniya that act as aerial nurses to transport FPV above electronic interference waists. The drone no longer depends on the range of its antenna: it depends on the telephone infrastructure, turning each tower into an involuntary military node.

The Russian response. Faced with this new front, Russia has tried close the gaps without disrupting the entire digital ecosystem… but intermediate solutions are failing. His first step was block for 24 hours any SIM that had been roaming, a measure designed to detect Russian cards clandestinely sent to Ukraine.

Then it expanded the blocking to inactive cards for 72 hoursa sign of growing fear that thousands of Russian SIMs are involved in attacks without their users even knowing. Finally, in several border regions the most extreme measure– Cut off mobile data at night, when attacks typically occur. This dynamic not only harms to the civilian populationbut also illustrates the loss of control of a State that sees its commercial infrastructure turn against it with disconcerting ease.

The historical precedent. The West already knew about the problem of telephony as a weapon, although never on this scale. In Iraq, a simple Nokia 105 could detonate explosive devices improvised with a reliability and range that would have seemed like science fiction in the nineties. To counteract this, jamming systems were deployed. as Warlockcapable of blocking signals in the surroundings of military convoys and columns.

Today, that same logic reappears with more complexity: any drone that uses a cellular network can be neutralized by blocking the signal, but doing so involves simultaneously blinding ambulances, firefighters, security forces and millions of users. What was once a tactical dilemma has become a strategic one: what can be blocked without leaving an entire country in operational silence?

An even more difficult future. The next technological leap makes this equation even more fragile. Both Russia and Ukraine already operate drones equipped with Starlink receivers or other direct satellite connectivity services. This marks the end of the absolute dominance of the electromagnetic territory: a drone that receives orders from orbit is immune to cell towers and to classical terrestrial interference patterns. As direct-to-satellite terminals for civilian use proliferate, it will be nearly impossible to distinguish between benign communications and command signals for hostile drones.

In that scenario, an operator located on another continent could direct an attack with surgical precision without depending on any network national security or expose oneself to foreseeable countermeasures. The battlefield ceases to be geographical and becomes a global digital space, where physical borders matter less than the availability of orbital constellations.

Control the spectrum. If you also want, the case of mobile phone in Ukraine illustrates how modern warfare has infiltrated all layers of civilian life, blurring the lines between public infrastructure and military capability. The Russian decision to turn off the network at night is not only a symptom of technological vulnerability, but also a advance of the type of conflicts that are coming: wars where each smart device is an antenna, each user a possible vector and each network a battlefield.

In this new paradigm, the question no longer points to how to defend a country, but rather to how to defend an infrastructure designed to connect millions of people without turn it into a weapon involuntary.

Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

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