The current investigation is about the fact of the 6th brigade’s tankmen participation in fights in Donbas. The article contains the identification of the Russian servicemen who went through the ‘Ukrainian assignment’ and the reconstruction of their ‘war path’ chronology.

We have already covered this topic in our previous stories, which were based on the photo and video proofs and on the information from the online profiles of the servicemen of military unit No. 54096 (Central Military District, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia).

All the persons mentioned below are linked to the tactical group of the 6th tank brigade which consists of the tankmen and scouts with clear signs of the ‘Ukrainian assignment’ participation – the typical masquerade with impersonation into the ‘Novorossiya’ militants (informal clothes, white arm bandages), and the equipment with typical identification signs (in this case the white circles on T72-B3 tanks). Most of the defendants in this case uploaded photos with the ‘assignment to Donbas, 2014’ comments in their online profiles a year later, in 2015. But some of them uploaded such photos in real time mode which allowed us to clear and confirm the previously known details.

The servicemen who had the ‘Ukrainian assignment’ did not often specify the military unit number in their profiles and that made some readers doubt. And the indirect evidence were not convincing for those who did not want to dig into the issue. That is why we start this investigation with a video from the Russian TVC TV channel, shot in the 6th tank brigade in Nizhny Novgorod in February, 2014. Here you can recognize our first character, E.Rassadin, a tankman from this military unit.

Here is a part of the TVC video clip: “Evgeny Rassadin is upset: another racing again resulted in no medals. But the sportsmen of the national team are still the reference for him. When I see how they cross the finish line, and take the 1st, 2nd or 3rd place – I am excited. I want to do that too. – explains Evgeny Rassadin, a driver mechanic”. And Darya Ivanova, the reporter, notices that he has all the chances. She is not mistaken since Evgeny is sent to a ‘tank biathlon’ in Donbas during the summer campaign. Let’s start with him.

1. Evgeny Rassadin (VK profile, archive) – a senior driver mechanic of the 6th separate tank brigade (military unit No. 54096).

He has the group photos (including the slides we had in September, 2014) where we can identify other ‘biathlonists’ who belong to the 6th brigade.

2. Pavel Osytchenko (VK profile, archive) – a tankman of the military unit No. 54096 who has the most precise chronology of his comrades-in-arms ‘war path’, including arrival to Rostov and ‘visits’ to Donbas:

– A picture in the military unit in Nizhny Novgorod on August 16, 2014.

–  The flight from the Moscow Oblast to Taganrog on August 17, 2014.

– Passing the Glory Memorial on Sambeksky Heights near Taganrog on August 18, 2014.

– A photo taken in Matveev-Kurgan raion on September 9, 2014. All other servicemen have this photo as well. Noteworthy is that the T-72B3 tanks have the white circles on the hulls.

– Please pay attention to another group photo of the militant tankmen (uploaded on August 15, 2015) and to photo- and video evidence of the ‘biathlonists’ losses in Donbas, near Chervonosilske village, Amvroisiivsky raion, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. Here you can see the burnt T72-B3 tanks with the white circles and the photo of a destroyed tank turret (uploaded on September 29, 2014).

3. Vadim Romanukha (VK profile, archive) – a contract tankman of military unit No. 54096, Mulino.

Vadim has an interesting photo album named ‘Work’, where we again see the Donbas ‘biathlonists’.

4. Dmitry Kozlov, which has 3 profiles (profile #1, archive; profile #2, archive;  profile #3, archive).

Dmitry Kozlov, as his other comrades-in-arms, saved the summer campaign ‘assignment’ picture in front of the T72-B3 tanks with the white circles.

5. Anton Yurevich Dmitriev (VK profile, archive) – the 12th tank regiment (military unit No. 31985) is specified as the place of service (supposedly before signing the contract with the 6th brigade). He is also in the terrorist database.

Anton’s ‘Army’ photo album has several group photos with the servicemen mentioned above. One of the pictures has the following comment: “we are not the fertilize materials, but the ones who fertilize” the Donbas soil.

6.  NikolaWoolf (VK profile, archive) – a serviceman of the military unit No. 54096, identified as Nikolai Minakov

Photos from the ‘Rostov-Ukraine assignment’ period with the comrades.

7. Roman Gromov  (VK profile, archive). Identified as Roman Shkirin

Photos from the ‘Southern assignment’ period, 2014

8. Dmitry Karasev (VK profile, archive)

9. Andrei Komarov (deleted VK profile,  cache archive)

He also poses in the picture mentioned above with Nikola Woolf and the white arm bandges, sitting on a tank with another comrade IssakClarke

10. Issak Clarke (VK profile, archive). This person is identified as Oleg Saprunov

11. Artem Vilkov (VK profile, archive) – a scout of the same sub-unit

Photos from the ‘Southern assignment’ period, 2014

Besides that, in Vilkov’s album we identified Sergei Gradov (Yakushev), another already disclosed Russian soldier. But we should say that Gradov-Yakushev was mentioned as a scout of the 9th motorized rifle brigade from Nizhny Novgorod, and now it appeared that he was the scout of the 6th brigade from the same city. This does not change the fact of his following the illegal orders in Donbas.

It should be noted that not all the servicemen of the 6th tank brigade reached the finish line in the ‘tank biathlon’ in Donbas. Some of them were ‘disqualified’ (captured by the Ukrainian army), some were sent home as the ‘cargo-200‘.

Original article by krmvictory, translated by Oleksandr Klymenko.