Unsuspecting Russian vacationers unwittingly play into the hands of the Ukrainian army. Her photos sometimes reveal military details that are easily deciphered by resourceful Internet users.
Tanned skin, relaxing time, beautiful area, but the background is crucial: holiday photos from Crimea are something special these days. There are sometimes explosions near the beach. Or an impressive air defense system of the Russian army.
What may be a memorable memory for vacationers is becoming an increasing headache for the Russian military leadership. Photos on social networks reveal the defensive positions.
Schweizer finds out the exact coordinates
Recently, a holiday guest on the Russian Facebook counterpart vk.com did his army a disservice. The man seems proud of the powerful device behind him, but his photo also revealed the exact location of an S-400 air defense system.
Shortly following he posted the photo on the social network, OSINT specialists took care of the picture. OSINT stands for Open Source Intelligence: A global community of enthusiasts collects and evaluates publicly available information. One of them is Benjamin Pittet from Biel, who is there sea the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” has brought a certain fame in the scene.
Russia is afraid of snapshots
Pittet discovered the holiday photo and published the exact coordinates of the missile defense system within a very short time. It wasn’t that difficult at all writes journalist Markus Krutov on the Russian portal «Svoboda».
Vacationers in Crimea are currently a nightmare for the Russian military. The Russian authorities warn accordingly on Telegram to take fewer photos and not upload videos.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry, on the other hand, apologized on Twitter for being “sometimes a little too hard” on Russian tourists. You deserve a lot more thanks for a job well done.
Maybe we are being too hard on russian tourists… Sometimes they can be really helpful. Like this man taking pictures at russian air defense positions near Yevpatoria, in occupied Crimea. Thank you and keep up the good work! pic.twitter.com/bj5oEyXU0H
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) August 22, 2022