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Ukrainians may be on the front lines in the
war with Russia, but the general populace is as clueless about military
operations as is the rest of the world. Should military news be delivered to
the people of Ukraine, in Ukrainian, in real time? Should secrecy trump
openness? Does news of an impending battle dilute the value of surprise? In some cases, Russian attack plans should be
made public as soon as possible in order to save lives. Information is power,
and you can never be too empowered when it comes to protecting your life and those
of your loved ones. A good example is the recent preemptive evacuation of
civilians. The Ukrainian government identified likely targets and tasked the National
Patrol Police with organizing personnel who then moved non-combatants to safer regions.
In Ukraine, all patrol police are national, meaning they report to the Ministry
of Internal Affairs in Kyiv. But where is safe? Russian missiles are
capable of striking anywhere and everywhere in Ukraine, the largest country
that lies entirely within Europe. A missile launched from temporarily occupied
Crimea can reach Lviv, and for reference, that's like saying a missile launched
from New York City can reach Miami or Chicago. People may understand that risk,
but when they opt to stay, it is because they fail to realize that far more
dangerous than long range missile strikes are the multiple rocket launcher systems
that the Russian military possesses in abundance. These shoot as many as 60 self-propelled
mid-range rockets in a matter of seconds, which means you can expect as many as
200 shells in less than a minute, mostly shrapnel units that explode right
before or right after they reach the ground, spreading thousands of sharp
pieces in every which way. Yet, some civilians decide to stay. The police try
to explain the risk, but the people who stay usually answer that they have
nothing but their land and their house, and without them, then they have no
life anyway. So they stay, unprotected, and if they're lucky they survive the
Russian multiple rocket launch systems. The police have no time to teach them
how to shield themselves, because their job is to get as many people out as
possible. The police wear armor that was engineered to stop pistol bullets, not
shrapnel. I personally donated 12 Class 5 bullet proof vests to the police
evacuation crews, which they share among shifts. Information is key here, but how do you get it
to the people in such a short amount of time? In the recent evacuation, the
government did all it could in the short amount of time it had, but still, some
people chose to stay. Thank-you pictures are personal, so I blurred
the faces of the officers. I never asked for a photo, but they sent me one
anyway. I cherish it. It makes me feel good that my gift, from the trunk of my
car, was able to lower the risk, even if ever so slightly, to people who risk
their own lives to save others. Western politicians split hairs about the
effective distance of the missiles for Ukraine, seemingly oblivious to the
advantage that the longer the effective distance, the more preemptive power
they have, and the more Ukrainian lives they can save. If you can stop the
enemy 200 miles away from a town, it means there's more time to evacuate people,
more time to persuade them to leave, more time to explain the reasons why, and
more time for the evacuation crew to escape danger. In this case, sharing
information is key to helping people survive. On the other hand, some information should
remain secret. Russia spent years preparing for this offensive, establishing
spies in Ukraine who had ample time to learn the language and get Ukrainian
passports. The two countries share almost 1,500 miles of border, and with a
Ukraine population of 40 million, it was easy for Russian spies to integrate. These
people have been activated like terrorist cells and Internal Security Service,
Ukraine's equivalent of the FBI, is working round the clock to identify and
arrest them. In this case, publicizing war tactics would
hurt the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Not only do the Russians track everything that
happens from open sources from Russia, but they also have spies who supply them
with information about missile strikes. The Russians do the best they can to
get the missile coordinates of any site they deem worthy of a missile. Most of
the time they go by old maps and flimsy information. They strike, but there is
no telling if the missile destroyed the intended target until Russian spies
integrated among civilians report back if the missile hit its target. If not,
they correct the coordinates and the Russian military recalculates and strikes
again. This is why the exact location of missile
strikes and explosions should not be reported now, and perhaps never, not even
in the long-awaited peaceful future. Please, dear reader: If by any chance someone
sends a video or a picture of a Russian fire strike in Ukraine, under no circumstances
share it. Furthermore, remind the sender that sharing it might lead to tens if
not hundreds of deaths. You who live a world away may think this is nonsense,
but please consider that your friend or buddy may have a relationship with the
Russian military or may have a relative in Russia who would love to get his
hands on this information. Therefore unknowingly, you are aiding terrorists.
The point is, do not share missile strike information with anybody, even if you
do not give coordinates. The Russians are just across a very long border, and their
special forces are very good at recognizing the area from pictures.
This kind of information should not be shared
with anyone outside active military personnel. For Ukrainians in the line of
fire, imagine that you are home, you hear missiles in the air and an explosion
and then another one. There is total confusion and silence in the media. You
are sheltered, hiding from the attack, but all that comes next, sometimes hours
later, is the air raid alarm canceled message. You have no idea what was destroyed.
The next day, you get official information that an infrastructure site was
damaged, with 10 people dead and 35 injured. You want to know more, but you
also realize that the more you know, the more lives are at stake. Serge A is of Ukrainian descent, grew up in Brooklyn and is volunteering in Ukraine as a legally armed member of a Territorial Defense Group. He was a columnist for the newspaper at Pace University which he attended as an undergrad.
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