[email protected] Ruslan Hanushchak (call sign Ostap), a military photographer and cameraman from Ivano-Frankivsk who served in the UAF Mechanized Brigade No. 92, was killed in action, reports Halka Natalya Kotskovych, spokeswoman for the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast TSC and Ruslan Hanushchak's former colleague in the Azov press office, also wrote about his death who made the best shots and short films from Shyrokyne we recorded all of Russia’s crimes in the Donbas in our stories My funny stories from the war usually featured him,” Natalya wrote She also recalled how Ruslan Hanushchak led their filming crew away from the mortar shelling in Shyrokyne (Donetsk oblast) “When everyone was praying for their lives 'I will lead you out this time too,'" Natalya said and prepared news stories about the war in Ukraine His photos from the war were known in the US and United Kingdom He also produced a film about Georgian volunteers in Azov when Ruslan was already serving in the UAF Mechanized Brigade No an exhibition of his photos was organized in Ivano-Frankivsk According to Misto the videos that Ruslan shot during the war were repeatedly broadcast by Ukrainian national TV channels and foreign media Ruslan was also the battlefield guide for Los Angeles Times war reporter Serhiy Loyk Telegraf notes that in 2016 Ruslan Hanushchak made the documentary “Two Days in Ilovaysk” about the beginning of the Ilovaysk tragedy of August 2014 According to the Institute of Mass Information Ruslan Hanushchak is the 96th media worker to die as a result of Russia's full-scale aggression [email protected] (050) 447-70-63 Ідентифікатор медіа: R40-01250 Reprinting and disseminating our information is allowed but under strictly condition of reference to the source the Ukrainian soldiers who passed through the town of Komsomolske on Saturday morning made for a sorry sight who had managed to escape alive from an assault they say involved regular units of the Russian army Having fled from encirclement in the town of Ilovaysk their column of 70 armoured vehicles and hundreds of soldiers was ambushed and shelled "Our vehicles were colliding with one another and our tracks were running over our own fighters," said Taras Samchuk whose 51st brigade was one of the units surrounded Two weeks ago, Ukraine looked as if it was winning its battle against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine with the encirclement at Ilovaysk a key moment Instead of fighting a ragtag group of rebels the Ukrainians have suddenly found themselves fighting the regular Russian army who worked as a barman in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk before being recruited to the army said he and his comrades rescued a Russian in an armoured vehicle they destroyed near the town "He told us he served in 8th Chechen brigade [possibly the 8th mountain motor-rifle brigade based in Chechnya] and he claimed he thought they were sent here for exercises," Samchuk said adding that the soldier was now being treated in a Kiev hospital Nobody knows how many Ukrainians died in Ilovaysk but the battle for the small town outside Donetsk is likely to go down as one of the defining moments of the conflict Some were killed in the intense exchanges of shelling in a battle for the town that lasted a week and many more were taken prisoner – more than 500 according to the Ukrainian official in charge of prisoner swaps a group of captive Ukrainians from volunteer battalions are forced to jump up and down at gunpoint by rebel commanders Russia has flatly denied any of its troops are operating in Ukraine, claiming a group of paratroopers captured by Ukrainians deep inside their territory were on a border patrol mission and crossed "accidentally" President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Russia is not party to the "internal Ukrainian conflict" But the evidence is mounting that an impending rebel defeat pushed Moscow to intervene more overtly in the past two weeks There have been repeated sightings of Russian army ration packaging and of "green men" without insignia similar to those who took part in the annexation of Crimea A video posted on YouTube this week showed a huge armoured column that appeared to be Russian moving well inside Ukrainian territory a regional newspaper has published a long transcript of what it alleges to be recorded conversations with two servicemen of the 76th Pskov airborne division who returned from Ukraine the soldiers relate the story of a company that was almost completely annihilated by Ukrainian artillery The men say only 10 out of between 80 and 100 from the company survived the shelling a local Pskov politician who obtained the tapes told the Guardian the soldiers were Russian servicemen but said he could not reveal the identities of the three men or explain how he got hold of the recordings Schlossberg is recovering from a beating he links to his inquiries about the fate of Pskov soldiers He said military authorities are coercing relatives of soldiers believed to be in Ukraine into silence The Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, a rights organisation, claims up to 15,000 soldiers have been sent over the border in recent weeks. The newspaper Novoya Gazeta published an interview with the mother of 20-year-old sapper Vadim Tumanov alongside a photograph of an official notice informing the local military commissar of his death he told her he was near the Ukrainian border and "going to war" "You won't see it on TV, hear it on radio or read it in newspapers. You won't find anything on the internet that explains what is really happening where we are now. Honestly, you're better clueless, because the truth is horrible", Zdrok wrote in a post dated 26 August. He had earlier posted a newspaper article about Russian casualties on the border with Ukraine, remarking that they were reconnaissance soldiers from his 9th motor-rifle brigade, based in Nizhny Novgorod. Semyon Semenchenko, commander of the Ukrainian Donbass volunteer battalion, earlier claimed the 9th brigade was one of the two Russian units that encircled his men at Ilovaysk. The leader of the Donetsk rebels has admitted there are Russian soldiers in the region but says they are not there on orders of the Russian army but "on holiday". Having routed the Ukrainians at Ilovaysk and taken back other strategic sites such as Luhansk airport and the coastal town of Novoazovsk, regular Russian soldiers have evaporated from view. Days after the surrender of Ilovaysk, the territory between Donetsk and the port of Mariupol is now an eerie no man's land, dotted with burned-out vehicles and the remains of Ukrainian army checkpoints. The rebels have slowly advanced down the road, though only in small groups. In the town of Telmanove on Tuesday afternoon, a group of seven rebels, dressed in T-shirts and camouflage trousers, were busy using a digger to move concrete blocks into place to form a checkpoint. There was no other sign of the rebels, and certainly no sign of any Russian soldiers, although further up the road two armoured vehicles were spotted driving along dirt tracks, apparently under rebel control. It is unclear whether the rebels will heed Putin's appeal to stop their advance. In Mariupol, the presumed next rebel target, the Kiev-appointed regional governor, Serhiy Taruta, promised that the city would be defended if the rebels attempted to take it, and said the Russian regular invasion had completely changed the game in eastern Ukraine. "Without the troops and armour sent over the border, we would have taken back Donetsk by the end of August," he said. One of the most harrowing battles for the Ukrainian military in 2014, the battle of Ilovaisk, turned into the most devastating tragedy during the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO, later renamed Joint Forces Operation, JFO). These events served as a critical lesson that any compromise with Putin is a trap, according to the head of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov. Addressing military intelligence personnel, Budanov reminded them that August 29th is a significant date for each of them—the Day of Remembrance for the defenders who died fighting for Ukraine's independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. "Today marks ten years since Ukraine was shocked by the tragic news of the treacherous massacre of Ukrainian soldiers whose path took them through a sunflower field. This is why the sunflower has become the traditional symbol of this day of remembrance," Budanov wrote. The intelligence chief recalled the fierce battles between Ukrainian defenders and Russian invaders near Ilovaisk that lasted for a month, as well as the so-called promised "green corridor," which became a deadly route for hundreds of soldiers and volunteers. "Russian forces violated the agreements and opened fire to annihilate the Ukrainian columns on the march. Hundreds of soldiers and volunteers were killed, and dozens went missing. These events became a huge lesson—Putin can never be trusted, any compromise with him is a trap," Budanov said. The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate urged people to honor and remember all the fallen defenders of Ukraine. To recap, on August 18-19, 2014, Ukrainian forces took control of most of the city of Ilovaisk. In response, Russia sent eight battalion-tactical groups to the area, staffed with regular Russian military personnel. As a result, Ukrainian units found themselves encircled. On the night of August 29, the occupiers offered them a way out of the encirclement through the so-called "green corridors" without weapons. However, as the Ukrainians began to withdraw from Ilovaisk, Russian troops and their mercenaries opened fire. the death toll from the Ukraine conflict doubled last week from 1,129 on July 26 to 2,086 on Aug Heavy shelling between the Ukrainian military forces and pro-Russian separatists continues Residents in and around the major cities of Donetsk and Luhansk find their lives interrupted as the military tries to regain control of two of its largest cities either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's military said on Monday its forces were battling a Russian tank battalion for control of a vital airport in the east of the country as President Petro Poroshenko accused Moscow of "direct and open aggression" against his country Ukrainian coastguards meanwhile searched for two seamen missing after one of their patrol boats was sunk in the Sea of Azov by artillery fire from pro-Russian separatists on the shore Eight other seamen survived Sunday's attack and were being treated for wounds and burns Several hundred Ukrainian forces are bogged down near Ilovaysk and have been trying to break out of encirclement by Russian-backed separatists for several days said Russia's direct involvement in the war against the separatists in eastern Ukraine had tipped the balance on the battlefield and was the main reason for recent reversals "Direct and open aggression has been launched against Ukraine from a neighboring state This has changed the situation in the zone of conflict in a radical way," he said Poroshenko said there would be changes in the military top brass because of the events of last week Last week separatists who Kiev says were backed by a Russian armored column took the town of Novoazovsk in the southeast and are now threatening the strategic port city of Mariupol Kiev's military has imposed an information clampdown on what is happening in Ilovaysk until its forces have been successfully withdrawn told Ukraine TV's 112 channel: "The tragedy near Ilovaysk became possible after (Russian President Vladimir) Putin brought regular troops into Ukraine." "In all there were 500 men deployed in Ilovaysk healthy and with a full ammunition set," he said "Our people surrendered only when they had run out of ammunition when they no longer had anything to fire with," he said 69 more pro-government fighters had managed to break out and rejoin Ukrainian forces adding to a few dozen others over the weekend for control of the main civilian airport just to its south "Ukrainian paratroopers are fighting a tank battalion of the Russian armed forces to hold the airport," it said some armored vehicles and a missile system The military gave no figures for Ukrainian losses Ukrainian border guards said search operations were still going on for the two missing coastguards whose patrol boat was hit by a rebel shell in what pro-Russian rebels claimed was the first sea victory of their five-month separatist war the area where rebels are now threatening the main port of Mariupol thanks to other cutters coming to their rescue We are continuing rescue operations," the official we believe that this attack was from an artillery system but we don't know yet where it was fired from," he said A top United Nations human rights official said last week that the total death toll in the five-month conflict - including civilians Ukrainian forces and separatists - was nearly 2,600 Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all Ukraine - Alexander Bespalko and his son lifted parts from a burned-out Ukrainian armored personnel carrier in a village ravaged by the past week's battles residents in the village of Hrabske must scrape for a living and at least scrap metal is reliable - with wrecked tanks "My home was leveled and I need to rebuild it somehow," Bespalko said Sunday in between giving instructions to 9-year-old Denis who was clambering hammer in hand over the metal carcass "This heap of junk is scrap that I can make some money from," he said "Everything is destroyed and there is no work." Hrabske and the nearby strategic town of Ilovaysk have suffered badly from recent clashes as separatist Russian forces relentlessly chip away at areas under government control Few streets are free of the scars of artillery attacks More than half the schools across rebel-held areas stayed closed Monday on the traditional first day of school so Denis was free to continue on scrap collection duty Ukrainian forces made notable strides after fighting broke out in April but that has been almost all reversed in a major recent rebel counteroffensive Kiev and Western countries allege Russia has sent in troops and equipment to bolster the pro-Russia rebels but Moscow firmly denies it and rejects suggestions that it can wield influence over the rebels The bitter fight for Ilovaysk and surrounding areas between Ukrainian government troops and pro-Russian separatist fighters lasted the best part of a month the government conceded inevitable defeat as its armed forces were surrounded completely and came under relentless fire The rebel force makes no secret of its international character and includes many Russians along with Spaniards one van carrying rebel fighters was draped with a flag of Russia's Republic of Chechnya those with nowhere else to flee took refuge in a monastery a couple of miles further down the road as rebels consolidated their control in Hrabske and Ilovaysk residents started returning to inspect what remained of their homes dogs excitedly emerged to greet their long-departed masters an emergency services employee who fled to the relative safety of the main rebel-held city of Donetsk as she returned to her house for the first time in 20 days She counted herself lucky to find some tomatoes still reddening on the vine and grapes just ripening Other houses in her street were either partially or completely smashed by artillery "You see the crater in my neighbor's house," said Tatyana who asked for her surname not to be published because she is not allowed by emergency services to speak to the press the rumble of shelling could be heard in the remote distance Hrabske was occupied by government troops and became a base for firing shells at Ilovaysk whose center lies beyond a railway crossing that served as a dividing line between the warring sides While there were already signs of life returning to Hrabske obtaining basic necessities will be an uphill climb for the foreseeable future One of the villages' two shops has been reduced to a scorched shell Many others lay dead after weeks of not being fed and the stink from their rotting bodies wafted across the yard The farm once provided work for the village's residents Some arrived instead Sunday to stuff as many chickens as would fit into a sack those with the least opportunity to leave conflict areas are the aged and the infirm AP reporters met a group of elderly people who said they had been living in an apartment basement for a month which have played a deadly role in the often erratic shelling duels that are a trademark of this conflict lay scattered around their apartment courtyard many homes remain without electricity and water The only real authority in the city is wielded by the groups of armed rebel fighters roaming the streets and countryside sat in a gloomy office before a cup of tea as fellow fighters flitted in and out MOSCOW Pro-Russian rebels softened their demand for full independence Monday saying they would respect Ukraine's sovereignty in exchange for autonomy - a shift that reflects Moscow's desire to strike a deal at a new round of peace talks released at the start of Monday's negotiations in Minsk represented a significant change in their vision for the future of Ukraine's eastern whether the talks can reach a compromise amid the brutal fighting that has continued in eastern Ukraine the rebels pushed Ukrainian government forces from an airport near Luhansk The negotiations involve former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma; Russia's ambassador to Ukraine; an envoy from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and representatives of the rebels Yet similar talks earlier this summer produced no visible results Although he was a close ally of President Petro Poroshenko's new government in Kiev neither had the financial nor military clout to achieve that aim So Kolomoisky decided to build his own private army of volunteers He paid for all of this from out of his own pocket Estimates suggest Kolomoisky could call on over 20,000 troops and reserves includes around 2,000 heavily armed fighters The unit is reported to have cost the banking billionaire $10 million to set up. They helped play a key role in halting the advance of the Moscow-backed rebels from their strongholds in the neighbouring Donetsk and Luhansk following the sacking of its director Oleksander Lazorko On Tuesday, Poroshenko fired Kolomoisky and now this private could become a major problem for the Ukrainian authorities This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page This post originally appeared in Russian on the LiveJournal of Askai707 English translation by Aric Toler The following post is the second half of a two-part research project from Askai707. An English translation of the first half can be found here in which Askai researches the mysterious deaths of two 6th Tank Brigade soldiers during the Battle of Ilovaysk and a Russian T-72B3 tank found on the Ilovaysk battlefield containing the documents of a 6th Tank Brigade serviceman In this second part of Askai’s research Fighters from the Donbass battalion took photographs of these tanks their photos were published on a news report of the television channel “24.” White circles on the fender and on the box for instruments and other implements: The white identifying circle on the lower part of the upper-front section of the hull: The arrow below points to the hole caused by the anti-tank grenade: The structure in the video frame is a rural house It is located on the left side of the destroyed tank which differ in height and the shape of the roofs: It is not very difficult to find this structure on the satellite map of Chervonosel’skoe Here are the outskirts of the village from the east side the northern half of the house has been badly damaged Russians were shelling Ukrainian soldiers who had taken refuge in Chervonosel’skoe and this northern side of the house suffered from it which is shown in the snapshot of the map below: behind the line of bushes at the bottom of the gully: http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/sled_vzayt/73245930/179671/179671_original.jpg we can look at even earlier satellite images and be sure that there were not objects of similar shape or size at the same place at the bottom of the gully: See the following photographs of this Russian T-72B3 tank Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c622621/v622621596/3ae5/AqHp6sK7OIA.jpg Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c622621/v622621596/3adc/FqhSnyPOkDw.jpg On the upper part of the front section of the tank is a white circle—a mark that has traditionally been used for T-72B3 tanks from Russia’s 6th Tank Brigade during this period: Screenshot from this video the burnt turret with missing reactive armor bricks is to the left of the gun which was seen near the tank’s hull in the pictures taken on August 29 immediately after the battle: A video from the village of Chervonosel’skoe from Rupty TV (September 2) shows this T-72B3 tank turret and lacking any reactive armor bricks in the same location Aleksandr Yermochenko filmed and photographed the turret on September 3: Original source: https://cs7065.vk.me/c7007/v7007937/22bf9/jFEWUGYW-vw.jpg it is not the hull of the tank near the turret in the later The location of the T-72B3’s turret from the gully may be determined using a video that was filmed by fighters on the outskirts of Chervonosel’skoe and from photos on social media We can pick out meaningful objects on the photographs: the turret of a Ukrainian T-64BV tank Original source: https://cs7065.vk.me/c7007/v7007937/22be7/d0ME6kfXW60.jpg The same thing in a screenshot from a fighter’s video: These objects, just like Ukrainian equipment destroyed on the road, presents itself in the September satellite images of the northern edge of the village of Chervonosel’skoe: Clearly visible in the images is the furrow that the T-72B3 turret was left in after being dragged along the ground Perhaps Russian soldiers tried to take it away right after the end of the fighting The next important part of the evidence regarding the Russian 6th Tank Brigade: the prisoners On August 29, as a result of the battle in Chervonosel’skoe, Ukrainian soldiers captured several Russian servicemen, including two tankists from the damaged T-72B3 tank. On this day, fighters from the “Donbass” battalion took a video of their interrogation the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) published this video clip There are two servicemen of Russia’s 6th Tank Division from the September group photos (see photos 1, 2, and 3 from Part 1 of this article) that seem to be in the footage: Ivan Badanin (number 17 in the group photos) and Evgeny Chernov (number 10 in the group photos) The fact that Chernov is a tankist and was completing his service in the 6th Tank Brigade can be found from his photographs on social networks Evegeny is next to a T-72B3 tank with the tactical mark of Russia’s 6th Tank Brigade The photograph’s geotag is at the village of Mulino the place of deployment for military unit 54096 Under the photo is Chernov’s description: “Me and my iron horse.” Archive: https://archive.today/l04qZ , Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c608823/v608823106/130df/C9xGVei9FXY.jpg Another photo of Chernov with a T-72B3 tank in Mulino: Archive – https://archive.today/fPRIx, Original source – https://pp.vk.me/c608823/v608823106/130c4/_aBTQmQDPbA.jpg Fall, 2014. Chernov (in the center) on a tank of the 6th Tank Brigade with the identifying white circle in a field camp near the village of Latonovo in the Rostov oblast’: Archive: https://archive.is/UxnxQ, Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c620123/v620123805/19d4c/1lNtoshIx-s.jpg Chernov (lower row, on the right) and his comrades are posing in front of a T-72B3: in the upper row in the center is Sergey Danilov (number 13 on the group photos), on the lower row on the left is Sergey Yakushev, also known as Gradov (number 2 on the group photos) On his VK page, tankist Ivan Badanin left few compromising photographs, and after the appearance of the interrogation video, he entirely deleted his profile. Investigative blogger Anton Pavlushko of InformNapalm saved screenshots of a few photographs of Badanin Ivan Badanin near a memorial with a tank on the territory of the 6th Tank Brigade in summer Badanin in his military uniform with the insignia of the armored troops, and on his sleeve is the badge of the Western Military District of the Russian Armed Forces—the district into which the 6th Tank Brigade from Mulino is in Here is a snapshot of Badanin with his comrades of the 6th Tank Brigade—second on the left is Garik Pleshkov (number 3 in the group photos), and on the far right is Maksim Korotkov (number 4 on the group photos): This photo remains on the VKontakte pages of these servicemen of the 6th Tank Brigade Facing encirclement from a large enemy force and the threat of the destruction of Ukrainian servicemen defending Chervonosel’skoe the soldiers decided to lay down their arms After the ceasefire, some Russian tankists photographed themselves at the signpost of the village of Chervonosel’skoe. Two pictures posted online were found by investigative blogger Anton Pavlushko even more direct evidence of the participation of units from the Russian 6th Tank Brigade in the war in the Donbass came to light The first photograph was posted by Anton Dmitriyev after he registered on VKontakte under the name “Antokha Dmitriyev.” Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c624319/v624319855/f02/CqR6XuFs-Ug.jpg In this photo on the left side is Dmitriyev’s colleague: tankist Roman Gromov (number 8 in the group photos) On the right is Antokha Dmitriev himself (number 9 in the group photos) which are used by Russian soldiers and fighters in order to tell their own soldiers apart on the battlefield: Shortly after the publication of this photo, Dmitriyev deleted his “Antokha Dmitriyev” account and created a new one under the name “Anton Yuryevich.” He uploaded a number of photos from his old page onto his new one with the exception of the picture at the road sign “Червоносільське” (Chervonosil’skoe) Archive: https://archive.today/s8V9E, Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c624121/v624121209/12e69/WHdBQUWKWe4.jpg Here is a photo of three tankists on the roof of the engine compartment of a tank. From left to right: Nikolay Minakov (on VK he registered under the nickname Nikola Woolf), Anton Dmitriyev, and Sergey Malafeyev White ribbons are tied onto Minakov and Malafeyev Russian servicemen participating in fighting use these ribbons for differentiating themselves from opposing soldiers: Archive: https://archive.today/iJ5vO, Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c620719/v620719953/17385/cSf1nIZ1iN8.jpg Here is Dmitriyev with two of his comrades, dressed in their uniforms. From left to right: Anton Dmitriyev, Roman Gromov, Pavel Osytchenko (number 6 in the group photos) they’re holding NSVT anti-aircraft machine guns Archive: https://archive.is/W4f1W, Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c617916/v617916458/24a48/CuB9P7lq91w.jpg Archive: https://archive.is/C8loB, Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c624929/v624929300/4177/bAM0wE2Pacc.jpg Similarly, the same photo is available on the page of the comrade of Anton Dmitriyev, Roman Gromov, who was photographed with him in Chervonosel’skoe: https://archive.is/TrBbL whose identity has not yet been established: Archive: https://archive.is/6PW33, Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c622220/v622220984/1c547/leRLyZPHjQY.jpg Both of them are in camouflage without any kind of military insignia but at the same time they are wearing the identifying white bands and have light firearms is a window without glass and a burnt frame In the foreground we can see the open door of a car An analogous scene can be found after the battle in Chervonosel’skoe, seen clearly in three photographs (1, 2, 3) The next few photographs of Sergey Malafeyev were saved after he deleted his VK account A photograph uploaded in March 2014 (you can find the date of publication for the photograph in the archived page here) the unshaven Malafeyev is sitting on a T-72B3 with the identifying white ribbons on his legs The tank has a small white circle on the panel by the gun on top of the turret: Returning to the group photograph of the 6th Tank Brigade servicemen it must be mentioned that Sergey Malafeyev is present In my previous post with the group photographs in contrast to the other identified servicemen Malafeyev and Minakov are quite similar in appearance and there was a risk in making a mistake and mixing up their places it seems that the most accurate identifications—seen in the photograph below—is red for Sergey Malafeyev and blue for Nikolay Minakov let’s determine the exact location of the road sign (so beloved by these Russian servicemen) for the village of Chervonosel’skoe The sign is located on the bend of the road at the entrance into Chervonosel’skoe from the north (its location on Google Maps) The road sign and other objects are marked below on an image from Google Earth: Behind the “Червоносільське” on the photographs a Ukrainian military truck is visibly turned onto its side: This very truck is on a video from Rupty. Aleksandr Yermochenko’s photo shows the same truck, along with a sign: The road sign in the video of the fighters (on the photo the Russian tankists are standing with their backs to the village and place from which the video was taken): There is no detailed and exhaustive information about which units from the 6th Tank Brigade fought near Ilovaysk and in what capacity According to the shooting card of Aleksey Berezin whose T-72B3 was captured near the village of Agranomichskoe we only know that the third tank company (abbreviated “3ТР” in the card photo) of the first tank battalion (“1ТБ”) participated in the battles Below is a screenshot from the video of journalist Rostislav Shapashnikov and Yegor Vorobyev On the cartridge box of Berezin’s T-72B3 tank’s anti-aircraft gun we see the abbreviation “3ТБ,” thus confirming that the tank came from the third tank company: Below is a screenshot from Yegor Vorobyev’s film “Ilovaysk – report from hell.” The ammunition box of the T-72B3 tank on which several tankists from the 6th Tank Brigade posed has the exact same abbreviation. In the photograph below, we see Nikolay Minakov and Oleg Sapurnov Archive: https://archive.is/fxqO5, Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c624831/v624831475/f373/tv-_QmxFzuA.jpg On the following photo, from left to right, are: Sergey Danilov (number 6 in the group photos), Andrey Komarov (a shared photo of Danilov and Komarov in February 2014 here) The identity of the fifth serviceman has not yet been established Archive: https://archive.is/I9J5f, Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c623221/v623221475/6554/UJ_V12ycW3U.jpg We cannot consider the entirety of the destroyed and damaged tanks in the Battle of Ilovaysk to be from the 6th Tank Brigade Ukrainian soldiers destroyed two T-72B3 tanks of the 6th Tank Brigade: one near the village of Novodvorskoe Two were damaged and temporarily seized: the damaged T-72B3 in Chervonosel’skoe was on Ukrainian-controlled territory for about a day and the captured T-72B3 near the village of Agronomicheskoe was by Ukrainian servicemen for 3-4 days the 6th Tank Brigade has other damaged and destroyed T-72B3 tanks On September 5, 2014, the tankist Aleksandr Lebedev (he has two accounts on VK, one old and one new) posted a photo of a T-72B3 with traces of an explosion and fire on the left side: Screenshots of the comments for the photo were saved Lebedev writes that this is his tank with the side number of 612 and that his tank was damaged in battle by a guided anti-tank rocket in Ukraine After this information was made public, Lebedev deleted the photo, along with other photographs where he is in a military uniform and with tanks. People managed to save a few of the photos (1, 2, 3) A screenshot was also saved of Aleksandr Lebedev’s VK profile page before it was changed: In the photograph, he is in the 6th Tank Brigade group and has group photographs with other 6th Tank Brigade servicemen. We can see several accounts in his friend list who are tankists of the 6th Tank Brigade: Aleksey Berezin It is evident that Aleksandr Lebedev also served in Mulino At the end of 2014, the site Lostarmour.info published two photographs of a burnt-up T-72B3 tank this is the last destroyed T-72B3 tank of Russia’s 6th Tank Brigade we know about Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c623625/v623625437/11f62/jQ0cOr74Oh0.jpg Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c623625/v623625437/120d7/-gFPKEae7gI.jpg Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c623222/v623222610/19d3a/4mTuX_53ODg.jpg In the bottom of the upper-front part of the hull, an identifying white circle is still visible – like on other T-72B3 tanks of the 6th Tank Brigade that participated in the Battle of Ilovaysk (two additional photos: 1, 2) Original source: https://pp.vk.me/c622928/v622928622/f565/VIqWzzIwHHA.jpg Photographs of this T-72B3 were put onto social networks by Russian servicemen from the field camp near the village of Vodino These soldiers were deployed on the border in the Myasnikovsky and Neklinovsky regions of the Rostov oblast’ Near these object is the a burnt-up T-72B3: It is now evident that the armored group of the 6th Tank Brigade was far from the only Russian army unit that has fought against Ukrainians near Ilovaysk judging by the evidence of their presence in the Donbass the tank brigade from Mulino was certainly among the leaders of the participating Russian groups in the Battle of Ilovaysk Research group Forensic Architecture collected images to use in ECHR case Newly collated evidence documenting Russian military involvement in the conflict in Ukraine will be used to bolster legal claims against the Russian state by Ukrainian volunteer fighters Forensic Architecture, a London-based research group, has collected and catalogued evidence of Russian military involvement in the battle of Ilovaysk in August 2014 including the presence of a model of tank used only by the Russian armed forces at that time The evidence will be appended to a case to be ruled on by the European court of human rights (ECHR) and has been released on a publicly viewable online platform The evidence includes numerous satellite images of Russian armed convoys inside Ukraine and multiple sightings of the T-72B3 tank a new model which at the time of the battle was operated only by the Russian armed forces Russia has continually denied military involvement in Ukraine despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary which came to a head at the end of August 2014 Ukrainian army units and volunteer battalions on one side were pitted against separatist and Russian military forces on the other resulting in hundreds of deaths on both sides Many of the Ukrainian casualties happened after their forces were encircled and then attacked when they tried to retreat after a ceasefire had been agreed The survivors included 25 Ukrainian volunteers from the Donbass Battalion which fought alongside the regular army during the war in 2014 They were among a larger group captured at Ilovaysk by men they believe to be from a regular Russian army unit While Ukrainian soldiers were handed back to the Ukrainian military the volunteers were turned over by the Russians to separatist fighters and many of them were held for several months The men allege they were tortured and subjected to forced labour and they now want Russia to be held accountable and are seeking damages at the ECHR which is now largely frozen but still sees sporadic fighting and has currently claimed over 13,000 lives there has been ample evidence that Russia financed At key moments in 2014 such as Ilovaysk, a decision appears to have been taken to send in regular army units. Russia also sent in hardware such as the Buk missile system believed to have shot down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 a month before Ilovaysk. However, because Russia denies all involvement, establishing Moscow’s responsibility beyond doubt is key for court cases. For this reason, the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), which is helping the claimants to bring the case, commissioned Forensic Architecture to put together hard evidence of Russian involvement at Ilovaysk. “Evidence of Russian military involvement needed to be as strong as possible … if you just look at online videos you don’t quite know if things have been manipulated, so in complex cases like this it’s incredibly useful,” said Jessica Gavron, EHRAC’s legal director. For the first time, Forensic Architecture used machine learning to speedily sift through about 2,500 hours of footage posted on YouTube from the region at the time of the battle, looking for frames in which there was a high probability of a tank appearing. Researchers could then view the frames and investigate further. “In its current form, this kind of technology can help us find a couple of things we might have otherwise missed, but we hope it will evolve into a game-changing tool,” said Lachlan Kermode, of Forensic Architecture. In the future it could be that the technology will be able to pinpoint specific models of armoured vehicles or other weaponry in long videos, saving hours of online research, though Kermode cautioned that it would never fully replace proper verification by human researchers. Gavron said: “There are a lot of problematic uses of this kind of technology when it comes to the violation of human rights, so it felt important to show how it can also be used to help identify rights abuses.” The volunteer fighters are also bringing a case against Ukraine at the court, accusing Kyiv of negligent planning of a military operation. The court has said it will first rule on interstate cases brought by Ukraine against Russia before dealing with individual cases relating to the conflict. This case is just one of around 4,000 linked to the annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Russia has a troubled relationship with the ECHR, part of the Council of Europe of which Russia is a member, and is frequently forced to pay out compensation to victims of torture in Chechnya or opposition politicians who say their rights have been infringed by Russian law enforcement agencies. A Russian law implemented two years ago allows for domestic courts to overrule ECHR decisions if they are deemed incompatible with Russia’s constitution, meaning it is possible that payments in the cases would not be made, given Russia’s denial of its involvement in the war. Ukrainian servicemen take up position during fighting with pro-Russian separatists in Ilovaysk. (Reuters: Maks Levin) Link copiedShareShare articleA group of Russian soldiers has crossed the Ukrainian border in armoured infantry carriers and trucks and entered the eastern town of Amvrosiyivka, according to a Ukrainian military spokesman. A convoy of "up to 100" tanks, armoured vehicles and rocket launchers was seen travelling on a road toward Telmanove, a town about 80 kilometres south of rebel stronghold Donetsk and 20 kilometres from the Russian border, Ukraine's army said in a statement. The army did not give details about the personnel on board the vehicles or when the column was thought to have entered Ukraine. A military source said the convoy had come from Russia. "We believe that this is Russian equipment. You cannot buy 100 tanks at a market in Donetsk or Lugansk," the source said. "Of course they have been moved from across the border." Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said government forces had killed about 200 separatists and destroyed tanks and missile systems in clashes in the towns of Horlivka and Ilovaysk further north. Mr Lysenko said 13 Ukrainian service personnel had been killed in the latest fighting and 36 people had been wounded. If it turns out Russian soldiers are fighting in Ukraine it could further deepen the country's crisis — the focus of talks this week between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian prime minister Arseny Yatseniuk. US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt said in a Twitter post: "The new columns of Russian tanks and armour crossing into Ukraine indicates a Russian-directed counter-offensive may be underway." Meanwhile, Mr Yatseniuk claimed Russia planned to halt gas flows to Europe over the coming winter, comments which are likely to escalate the standoff between Moscow and the West. "The situation in [Ukraine's] energy sector is difficult. We know of Russia's plans to block [gas] transit even to European Union countries this winter," he told a government meeting. Russia stopped gas supplies to Ukraine in June over a gas pricing dispute but has continued supplies to Europe, its largest market. Mr Yatseniuk did not say how he knew about the Russian plans. Last year half of Russian gas exports to the EU were shipped via Ukraine. 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