The loss of top ranking officers has come at a time when much of Putin’s invasion force has become bogged down by logistical problems, poor morale and Ukrainian resistance. The failure of its encrypted communications system could be another severe blow.
“In the call, you hear the Ukraine-based FSB officer ask his boss if he can talk via the secure Era system. The boss says Era is not working,” Grozev said on Twitter. “Era is a super expensive cryptophone system that [Russia’s defence ministry] introduced in 2021 with great fanfare. It guaranteed [to] work ‘in all conditions’.”
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the war was “like a nightmare” for Russia and hailed the Ukrainian resistance effort.
His comments came after Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, accused Vladimir Putin of having a plan to “brutalise Ukraine” by shelling cities.
