Russian troops steal $5 million worth of John Deere farm vehicles from Ukraine, find they've...

[midian182]

What just happened? Russian soldiers in the occupied city of Melitopol have stolen almost $5 million worth of farm equipment from a John Deere dealership and shipped it more than 700 miles to Chechnya. But the entire operation was in vain: all the equipment was unusable as it had been locked remotely.

CNN reports that in addition to looting residences, Russian troops have increasingly been stealing farm equipment, hundreds of thousands of tons of grain, and building materials in Ukraine.

One incident in Melitopol saw a Russian military transport used as part of a heist on a John Deere dealership: a flatbed truck with the letter Z painted on the side. The symbol has been used to show support for the invasion and was why a Russian pro Dota 2 player was dropped from his team over the weekend.

Among the list of stolen items were two combine harvesters valued at $300,000 each. There were also 27 pieces of farm machinery, including other types of tractors and seeders. The total value of all the products was close to $5 million.

Pretty useless when they're locked

Some of the equipment was taken to a nearby village, but the rest ended up 700 miles away in Chechnya. Much of the machinery is equipped with GPS tracking systems and can be controlled remotely, which means they can also be disabled and locked remotely.

"When the invaders drove the stolen harvesters to Chechnya, they realized that they could not even turn them on, because the harvesters were locked remotely," CNN's contact said.

The equipment is now said to be sitting on a farm near Grozny as consultants in Moscow try to bypass the remote locks. If they are unsuccessful, the only option would be to sell the machines for spare parts.

We've heard on several occasions about how technology is playing a big part in the Russia/Ukraine conflict, from DJI suspending its drone sales to the US targeting Russian Bitcoin miners.

Masthead image credit: Darla Hueske, middle image: Ben Seymour

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/94422-russian-troops-steal-5-million-worth-john-deere.html

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Should be relatively straight forward to bypass or replace the chips entirely, especially for a state actor.

 

[Nobina]

Russian troops stole milk from a fridge in a house in Ukraine, but it turns out the milk has gone bad, the carton had "Z" written on it.

 

[Dimitriid]

We're about to find out the universal truth of DRM (This are not strictly digital per se, but the locking mechanism still are): It only really stops paying customers from functionality they should be legally entitled to and can never actually deter actual theft I am fairly confident people in Russia will be able to crack these and use them.

Well maybe but if they are not put to use, it's because this is more of a strategy of war move and there's probably not an important need to use them but still I think the point that these farming vehicles can be easily cracked remains.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Remote Disabling is cute.

Till you strip and sell them for parts.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Should be relatively straight forward to bypass or replace the chips entirely, especially for a state actor.

It's all machinery. When you dont have a goverment breathing down your neck about emissions it's trivial to bypass all this garbage. The russians could get this stuff running in 1-2 hours easily.

 

[wiyosaya]

Now we know the real reason Russia is pi$$ing on the Ukraine - not only is the Russian military equipment ancient and ineffective against, well, virtually any modern military equipment, but they must need modern farm equipment, too. Too bad Putie is corrupt and only interesting in robbing his citizens to pad his own bank account, otherwise, Russia might have the money to modernize equipment that desperately needs modernization.

 

[Irata]

And here you‘d think that everyone has progressed since the 1940s….

 

[mgwerner]

We're about to find out the universal truth of DRM (This are not strictly digital per se, but the locking mechanism still are): It only really stops paying customers from functionality they should be legally entitled to and can never actually deter actual theft I am fairly confident people in Russia will be able to crack these and use them.

Well maybe but if they are not put to use, it's because this is more of a strategy of war move and there's probably not an important need to use them but still I think the point that these farming vehicles can be easily cracked remains.

There are already farmers here in the US using bootleg software to bypass JD's strict restriction on only the company reps being able to diagnose and repair the software issues, and fighting the company in the courts (Right to Repair). I would not be a bit surprise if the source of much of that software was Russia. That's where I get my cracks....

 

[bviktor]

Should be relatively straight forward to bypass or replace the chips entirely, especially for a state actor.

Oh yes, everyone and their mother knows how to bypass remote disable on John Deere combines.

These morons couldn't even figure out the supply chain of a 50 km offensive. For the past 2 months.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Oh yes, everyone and their mother knows how to bypass remote disable on John Deere combines.

These morons couldn't even figure out the supply chain of a 50 km offensive. For the past 2 months.

But they sure did figure out how to flatten Ukraine tho.

 

[dangh]

But they sure did figure out how to flatten Ukraine tho.

Russians soldiers know only one strategy from 2ww - flatten everything, steal everything and rape anything.
There is not much philosophy in flattenig anything, and good, because those orcs are too stupid to do anything else.
To thin, they were considered a 2nd army in the world...

 

[Eldritch]

Russians cracking and hacking all sort of secure and sophisticated systems.

Will they be able to bypass a tractor DRM?

Geez, I don't know.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Russians soldiers know only one strategy from 2ww - flatten everything, steal everything and rape anything.
There is not much philosophy in flattenig anything, and good, because those orcs are too stupid to do anything else.
To thin, they were considered a 2nd army in the world...

Evolution must be served

 

[Sausagemeat]

The coverage of Russian operations in the Ukraine is so badly warped by the western press. It really is giving the Russian propaganda a run for its money at times. I mean the mainstream media even rebooted the “ghost of Kyiv” bullshit over the last few days.

And it’s not even hard to find the truth, not in this day and age. The sad thing is if this harvester rubbish is the best positive story they can come up with for the Ukraine then things are probably not looking good over there.

I wonder for how long are the west going to continue to fuel Zelensky for. It kinda feels like all that’s happening is we are throwing more bombs and bodies at an inevitable loss.

 

[nismo91]

Plot twist: they will soon hack these JD and upload the cracks for free on the internet.

 

[emmzo]

The coverage of Russian operations in the Ukraine is so badly warped by the western press. It really is giving the Russian propaganda a run for its money at times. I mean the mainstream media even rebooted the “ghost of Kyiv” bullshit over the last few days.

And it’s not even hard to find the truth, not in this day and age. The sad thing is if this harvester rubbish is the best positive story they can come up with for the Ukraine then things are probably not looking good over there.

I wonder for how long are the west going to continue to fuel Zelensky for. It kinda feels like all that’s happening is we are throwing more bombs and bodies at an inevitable loss.

I agree there's a lot of bullsh!t stories, but the outcome is far from foreseeable. The battle of Kyiv was lost by the Russians, they retreated with heavy losses, their best battleship lies on the bottom of the Black Sea, the battle is raging in Donbas and in the south, but they can't make any significant progress and these facts can't be disputed.

 

[wiyosaya]

I agree there's a lot of bullsh!t stories, but the outcome is far from foreseeable. The battle of Kyiv was lost by the Russians, they retreated with heavy losses, their best battleship lies on the bottom of the Black Sea, the battle is raging in Donbas and in the south, but they can't make any significant progress and these facts can't be disputed.

And then there is today's news - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-n...latest-russia-news-putin-mariupol-evacuation/
and this interesting tidbit https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...d-two-russian-patrol-boats-monday-2022-05-02/
If there is any truth to these, our local Russian Propagandists will not be happy.

 

[Beerfloat]

But they sure did figure out how to flatten Ukraine tho.

They also did a tremendous job getting a whole lot of contrarian edgelords to carry water for them on western forums.

 

[frankens43]

Would be funnier to wait to disable the engines once the gps said they were in the middle of a field harvesting something..

 

[Gleowine]

$5 million worth of John Deere… so they stole two tractors in a riding lawnmower?

 

[BuckarooBonzaii]

If there's a will there's a way.

 

[scavengerspc]

But they sure did figure out how to flatten Ukraine tho.

It's easy when you don't give a **** who you hit.
Russia's strategy hasn't changed. Avoid battle with an actual military. Its a losing strategy for them, so they hit civilians.

Even back during the Finnish wars of the late 30s, the Finns stopped putting markings on hospitals and civilian centers because the bastard russians just saw it as a bullseye.

EDIT -
Just for your reading displeasure:

Russia’s Long History of Bombing Hospitals

In Syria, it’s been going on for years, with hundreds of attacks on health care facilities

newlinesmag.com

 

[Branch]

Till you strip and sell them for parts.

They're like Jawas from Tatooine.

 

[nnguy2]

They also did a tremendous job getting a whole lot of contrarian edgelords to carry water for them on western forums.

funny how the free market supporters on this forum are also the loudest dictator cheerleaders