More than a year is gone since the publication of InformNapalm’s investigation “Evidence of the Participation of the 61st Marine Brigade of the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet in the Fights in Donbas” where we gathered the facts of the tactical units that belong to 61st Separate Marine Brigade of Russian Northern Fleet (SMB NF) taking part in combat in Donbas during Summer-Fall 2014. We presented documentary evidence of Marines’ involvement: 40 photos from personal profiles of 17 Russian soldiers -“Donbas veterans” – posted on Social Media websites. Soon after these photos had been published Russian security service wiped out all proofs of Marines’ Donbas mission, but when the dust settled, naughty and unruly Marines went back to bragging about their “Ukrainian business trip”.

InformNapalm volunteers performed a new OSINT investigation that detected another group of Marines of 61st SMB NF (military base #38643, Sputnik town, Murmansk Oblast) who share photos of their detachment’s “Ukrainian campaign” dated 2014. Most of Marines are experienced contractors with many years of service and combat experience in the so-called counter-terrorism missions to the North Caucasus. It is noteworthy that some of the “Donbas veterans”, after their Ukrainian trip, found time for “international mission” in the Middle East – in Syria. A few Marines managed to get on our radar several times, often having the same names and profiles, but demonstrating new incriminating photos.

Igor Bushuyev (archived profile, photo album 1 and 2. contacts); his photo album displays a series of photos from Donbas, including a famous group shot that was a part of our previous investigation – with six Marines that were identified as war criminals. Bushuyev also shows a photo where he stands next to the grave stone of the battalion commander of the 61st SMB NF Segey Myshko, who “suddenly died” noticeably in time of peace in July 2014.

Here you can see photos with storage sheds of occupied Ukrainian military base #3035 in Luhansk that were discovered and analyzed by blogger and researcher Askai.

Maks Baranov, most likely his real last name is Rezvov (archive of his profile, photo album, contacts); his photo album shows a number of shots with repair process of an armored vehicle which is assumed to come from the war zone. These photos display bordering with Ukraine Kamensk-Shakhtinsky Raion of Rostov Oblast, Russia geotag and are dated September 2014. Baranov’s album also displays some photos from Volokonovka village located on the border with Ukraine (Kantemirovsky Raion of Voronezh Oblast, Russia) dated the beginning of August, 2014.

Besides photos Baranov shares the video of Marines encampment on the territory of Ukrainian military base #3035 (Luhansk) in August 2014. on the territory of the military unit №3035 in Luhansk . This video has a curious name “how it is there“(archive).

Sergey Kachanov (archive of his profile, album, contacts); his album demonstrates a series of photos from Donbas published in April 2016. “Militiamen” are posing for pictures in the destroyed village, and Kachanov is easily identified as one of them.

Roman Tertilov (archive of his profile. album. contacts) is spotted by our team for the second time. We have already exposed him, see the person #1. Yet, Tertilov carelessly posts a new photo from Donbas – the photo shows him wearing semi-regulation uniform, imperial Russian flag attached to the armored vehicle is waving in the background.

Maksim Martynenko (archive of profile, album, contacts) is posing in front of the tanks with “Death to Aydar” side marking which belong to a neighbor – 200th Special Operations Brigade of Northern Fleet – that surfaced many times in our Donbas investigations.

It is very ironic that Martynenko reposted infographics from InformNapalm publication about Russian private military companies – apparently, Russian military are fans of our community and read our website.

Nikolai Nikolaevich (archive of profile, photo albums 1 and 2, contacts) shares a photo from the fields of Rostov Oblast (bordering with Ukraine) in front of Ka-52 and Mi-8 helicopters. We saw similar pictures that were uploaded by other Russian soldiers who had been in “Rostov-Ukraine business trip”. Please, pay attention to the photo with Nikolai Nikolaevich sitting on the armored vehicle with extra ammunition load, most likely already on Ukrainian soil.

Vladimir Dubrovsky (archive of his profile, album, contacts) shows the photo of a disguised mortar battery from the area bordering with Ukraine. The image was uploaded in September 2014. Similar wandering artillery batteries were exposed earlier by other “Donbas veterans” (1 and 2). His photo album also contains a picture of a self-propelled 2S9 Nona APC-mounted mortar battery that was already transported to Millerovo Raion of Rostov Oblast, Russia, dated November 2014.

Diman Trudny (archive of his profile, album, contacts) with a series of photos of a wandering self-propelled 2S9 Nona mortar battery dated September-October, 2014. Gear is hidden in the woods; most likely, it was shelling Ukrainian territories like other Russian Armed Forces hardware accumulated by Ukrainian border at that time. We saw the same self-propelled guns in Dubrovsky’s photo album (see above), the only difference is that on Dubrovsky’s photos these SPGs were already transported to Millerovo.

More stories about adventures of Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet servicemen in Ukraine:

This publication was prepared based on OSINT-investigation by InformNapalm international volunteer community.

Translated by Andrii Gryganskyi.

Edited by Christina Dobrovolska

(CC BY) Information specially prepared for InformNapalm.org site, an active link to the authors and our project is obligatory for any reprint or further use of the material.

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