Thousands of Russian military servicemen flooded into Ukraine between 2014 and 2015, open source intelligence reveals.
“Most likely far more than ten thousand Russian servicemen participated in combat operations in eastern Ukraine,” a report from the open-source intelligence group Bellingcat concludes. Bellingcat arrived at this conclusion by looking at images of medals posted by Russian soldiers on social media. They were able to extrapolate the number of Russian soldiers who served in Ukraine because each medal bears a number, and the numbers run in consecutive order.
Bellingcat used two medals awarded at two different dates to arrive at its 10,000 troop number. The group also noticed a massive uptick in medals awarded between 2014 and 2015. There were no other conflicts Russia was even tangentially involved in at this time. Bellingcat thus concludes that the medals “strongly suggests larger combat operations with active Russian military involvement in this period.”
Bellingcat’s analysis confirms long-held Western intelligence findings and independent reports from Ukraine. Russia originally invaded Ukraine by dispatching troops in 2014 in unflagged uniforms. The Russian government portrays these troops, known as “little green men,” as “volunteers.” Russia’s invasion came after it illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, an action for which the U.S. and EU put Moscow under international sanctions.
Despite overwhelming evidence, Russia continues to deny active military involvement in Eastern Ukraine.
Russia actively supports, arms, and man’s separatist movements in Eastern Ukraine to undermine the Ukrainian government. Independent analyses confirm that Russia has supplied separatists with heavy weapons. Russia’s heavy weapon’s have caused record casualties in Ukraine, with the Ukrainian military suffering record casualties in August 2016.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Aug. 19 he is afraid of a “full-scale Russian invasion” in the face of a massive troop mobilization on the Ukrainian-Russian quasi-border. Throughout August, Russia has positioned nearly 40,000 troops along the quasi Crimean-Ukrainian border, along with armored personnel carriers.
The move comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine Aug. 10 of sponsoring two separate terrorist attacks in Russian-occupied Crimea. Ukraine denies any such incidents took place, and note the accusations mirror past false charges used to justify military action.
Russia was also caught lying about its other surreptitious military intervention in Syria. A recent Sky News investigation revealed that Russia is hiring hundreds of private military contractors to fight on the ground in Syria. Russia continues to maintain that its intervention in Syria is limited to aerial operations in support of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
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