The tale of how four Kalmyks went to the “wrong plains”

Russian soldiers from the 7th Military Base of the 49th Army (Southern Military District of Russia, deployed in Abkhazia, Georgia) were traced in the Donbas. Kalmyks, who serve in the Russian imperial troops, probably confused the Donbas steppes with their native vast expanses.

2016 year, which for InformNapalm has become a year of recognition and establishment as a professional international intelligence community, comes to the end. During this year, InformNapalm OSINT investigators revealed dozens of facts of the Russian involvement in the undeclared war against Ukraine. The particular military units and individual servicemen of the Russian army, spotted in Ukraine at different stages of the conflict, have been named; names of the dozens of war criminals have been made public. Many new models of Russian weapons and military equipment have been identified. The 7th Russian Military Base of the 49th Army (Southern Military District, Russia, based in Abkhazia, Georgia) has been largely featured among the collected evidence.

The new OSINT-investigation presents four homies-colleagues from the Reconnaissance Battalion of the 7th Military Base spotted on a “Ukrainian mission – 2015”. They have been identified through analysis of information and photos of the subjects of our previous investigations. For example:

a photo of Sergey Finogin (Ilya Kuznetsov), a contract soldier from the same military unit, who, being in summer of 2016 on a combat mission in occupied Horlivka, was photographed recklessly with a local bull terrier and posted the photo in social media;

analysis of social media accounts of the eight scouts of 7th Military Base who fought in Ukraine.

On the background of the group photo of the servicemen from the 7th Military Base, dressed in a non-statutory “Gorka” uniform (popular outfit among “rebellious mine workers” in 2014-2015), you can see abandoned buildings. The terrain and type of the buildings in the picture do not match the mountainous terrain of Abkhazia. The terrain in the photo looks more like a steppe landscape on the Russian-Ukrainian border in the vicinity of Izvaryne. We saw a similar landscape in the Donbas trip photo report of the Russian maintainer Mikhail Boyurov, who compromised not only himself, but also a tactical group of the 200th Brigade from the Russian Northern Fleet.

Subjects of the investigation:

Altynbek Zhumarystanov (Zhumarstanov)

currently is a contract serviceman of the 7th Military Base, was born on December, 26, 1994, is native of Kharabali in Astrakhan Oblast. He has accounts in social media: VK1 [нет Вконтакте, нужно вставить ссылку] (profile, album, contacts archive), VK2 (profile archives), OK (profile, album, contacts archives). Phone: +79270760777.

At first glance, the Zhumarystanov’s photo albums are inconspicuous. Except, it contains a photo from the “Ukrainian mission” period, which was previously presented by an OSINT-investigator Al Gri (whose investigations have been also published on the InformNapalm website). In addition, Zhumarystanov was identified in the group photo of scouts from the 7th Military Base, that was taken during the “Ukrainian mission – 2015” period somewhere in the same area, judging by the ruined buildings.

2. Eduard Chunov

also is a contract serviceman of the 7th Military Base and a native of Astrakhan Oblast, was born on April, 08, 1990. His accounts in social media are: VK (profile, albums, contacts archives) under the name Ivan Ivanov, and OK under his own name.

In his photo albums, he keeps series of images that illustrate his contract service both in Abkhazia and on deployments.

3. Kuandik Zharkanaliev

is a contract serviceman of the 7th Military Base and a native of Astrakhan Oblast as well. He has an account on VK (profile, photo archives).

Tough that Kuandik Zharkanaliev is camera shy, we were able to identify him in the photo from the album of Ivan Prokudin, a contract serviceman of the same military unit and a subject of our previous investigation, seen on the “Ukrainian mission – 2014” (the third identified soldier in the picture, the one with the Order of Courage, is Aleksandr Krivosheev).

4. Samat Isaliev

is a contract serviceman of the 7th Military Base and a native of Astrakhan Oblast, was born on February, 14, 1994. He uses accounts in social media: VK1 (profile, albums, contacts archives), VK2 (profile, album, contacts archives) under the name of Semyon Makarov, and OK (profile, album, contacts archives).

In Samat Isaliev’s photo album in OK we found the same group photo of scouts, as in Sergey Finogin’s files.

A secret that we can tell now

InformNapalm’s regular readers might remember the intriguing publication from October 27, 2016: Documents revealing personnel of another Russian BTG on a “Rostov-Ukrainian mission.

It is time to reveal a secret and name the source of information about the and personnel and structure of the Battalion Tactical Group (BTG) from the 7th Military Base. It is a picture posted by Isaliev- “Makarov” on VK2, the one taken “in the office“, at the base camp of Russian troops, located Oktyabrsky Raion, Rostov Oblast, near the Ukrainian border. Among other documents on the table, a ration record was discovered. This document reflected the structure of the BTG from the 7thMilitary Base BTG on “Rostov-Ukrainian mission” in 2016.

The structure and weapons of the 7th military base of Russian occupation forces.

The 7th Krasnodar Red Banner Order of Kutuzov and the Red Star Military Base, military unit 09332 (Gudauta, occupied Abkhazia, Georgia), includes:

Structure

– The command;

– Four mechanized infantry battalions;

– Sniper company;

– Tank battalion;

– Two self-propelled artillery battalions & one battery of towed howitzers;

– Rocket artillery battalion;

– Antitank artillery battalion;

– Antiaircraft missile battalion and an antiaircraft artillery missile battalion (parts of the so-called Anti-aircraft battalion group of the 7th Military Base);

– Reconnaissance battalion;

– UAV company;

– Engineer battalion;

– NBC protection company;

– Control (communications) battalion;

– Electronic warfare company;

– Control and artillery reconnaissance battery (of the artillery commander);

– Control and radar reconnaissance platoon (of the air defense forces commander);

– Control Platoon (of the reconnaissance commander);

– Maintenance battalion;

– Logistics battalion;

– Headquarters company;

– Medical company;

– Military instructors platoon;

– Training simulator platoon;

– Training range;

– Brass band.

The Military Base also includes a so-called aviation command office providing ground support for periodic flights of the Russian Airforce planes to the airfield in Gudauta; an anti-aircraft missile regiment (formerly the 100th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment, military unit 90100), consisting of 2 SAM battalions in Agudzera and Primorskoye, which have 8 units of S-300 SAM’s on combat alert (make part of the so-called anti-aircraft battalion group of the 7th Military Base); an electronic technical unit with alert facilities deployed on the airfield of Sukhumi Babushara Airport.

Armament

– T-90A and T-72B3 MBTs – 41 pc. (according to other sources 51 pc.);

– BTR-82AM and BTR-80 armored personnel carriers (APC) – 156 pcs.;

– MT-LB light multi-purpose armored towing vehicles – 15 pcs.;

– BM-21 Grad MLRS – 18 pcs.;

– Akatsia 152 mm self-propelled howitzers – 36 pcs.;

– D-30 122 mm howitzers – 6 pcs.;

– 2S12 Sani 120 mm heavy mortar systems – 18 pcs.;

– MT-12 Rapira 100 mm anti-tank guns – 12 pcs.;

– 9P149 Shturm-S self-propelled anti-tank missile systems – 12 pcs.;

– BRDM-2 armored reconnaissance vehicles – 4 pcs.;

– 9A33BM2(3) Osa SAM’s – 12 pcs.;

– 9A34(35) Strela-10 SAM’s on armored vehicle mounts – 6 pcs.;

– 2S6M Tunguska self-propelled anti-aircraft guns – 6 pcs.;

– 9K38 Igla man portable surface-to-air missiles – 27 pcs.;

– S-300 surface-to-air missile systems (SAM) – 16 pcs.

In addition, in accordance with the agreement on joint armed forces between the Russian Federation and unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia signed in Moscow on November 21, 2015, two mechanized infantry battalions, artillery and aviation groups, as well as a separate special operations group have been attached by Abkhazia to the 7th Military Base.

Except for a few of our additions, this note is based on the data from milkavkaz.

Judging by the number of our publications, featuring military unit 09332 (there are 26 publications, including the last one, and 10 of them are from 2016), the 7th Military Base of the Russian occupation forces is the most belligerent military force of the Russian Army in Ukraine. See more:

We would like to remind you that a database of InformNapalm investigations, proving participation of Russian servicemen in the fighting in Ukraine on the Russian-terrorists’ side, is permanently available at: https://informnapalm.org/database.

This publication was prepared by Irakli Komaxidze based on his own OSINT-investigation.

Translated by Evgeniy Kalashnik

Edited by Svitlana Kemblowski

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