Two destroyed T-72BA in eastern Ukraine October 2, 2014. REUTERS/Maria Tsvetkova

With the publication of The Interpreter‘s report – An Invasion By Any Other Name: The Kremlin’s Dirty War in Ukraine – today, we present an example of how five tanks that could only have come from Russia can be identified in one small area south of Ilovaisk.

At the end of August last year, Ukrainian troops broke out of their encirclement and attempted to push south to make it to Ukrainian-held Komosmolskoye. By now, Russian regular forces had entered the war and were attacking the evacuating troops.

While the landscape south of Ilovaisk is littered with burnt-out Ukrainian vehicles, we can identify at least five modernised Russian T-72 tanks in video footage and photographs taken following the battle.

Here is a map of the locations of these sightings: