We keep disclosing the facts of the Russia’s participation in the war in Donbas. This time we would like to present you with a couple of indirect evidences of that.

As you remember we published the “The Russian 8th Brigade’s Servicemen Return From Donbas as Cargo ‘200’ or Disabled” story on September, 11. It revealed the facts of the Russian servicemen partaking in combat actions in Donbas. Those soldiers were massively dissolved within the illegal armed formations. In the result of supplementary check of the ‘contract’-militants’ friend lists – the local separatists were found. In particular, some Artem Maslov has several interesting photos in his album:

• A picture of himself taken in winter in front of the latest Russian combined short to medium range surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapon system 96K6 ‘Pantsir-S1′ (NATO reporting name SA-22 Greyhound), uploaded on July 26, 2015. Taking into account the landscape, we can assume this is not the “Russia Arms Expo 2015” or some military exposition in the Middle East. It seems that Maslov couldn’t have missed a chance to shot a piece of the technology art.
• Note: The ‘Pantsir-S1’ is the Russian self-propelled air defense complex. It was designed to provide point air defense of military/industrial/administrative installations against aircraft, helicopters, precision munitions, cruise missiles and UAV’s and to provide additional protection to air defense units from enemy air. The system was created in 1994 and shown at MAKS-1995 for the first time. ‘Pantsir-S1’ was put into service on November 16, 2012. With the start of the war in Donbas these systems were noticed several times both at the Ukrainian border in the Rostov Oblast and in Donetsk Oblast in Ukraine. 

• Another photo taken in spring also draws attention. It shows the Russian last generation two-axle military vehicle ‘Ural-43206’ with wheel arrangement 4×4, which just recently started to go into the supply line of the Russian army. 
• Note: 4 ton ‘Ural-43206’ vehicle with wheel arrangement 4×4 was designed in 1996, but it was put into service only in 2008.

The fact that A.Maslov is not a serviceman of the Russian army and is just a local Donbas separatist in the ranks of ‘Novorossiya’ gang is proved by the pictures of his private photo album. It means that he could make a picture in front of Russian ‘Pantsir’ and ‘Ural’ only in Donbas. 

Original article by Irakli Komakhidze, translated by Oleksandr Klymenko