Volunteers of InformNapalm international intelligence community have finding suggesting a possible covert movement of personnel and hardware of the 45th Special Operations Brigade of the Russian Airborne Forces (45th SOB, military unit 28337, permanent deployment of Kubinka, Moscow Oblast) to Belarus. The servicemen of this unit took part in the aggression against Ukraine, and in January 2022 they made part of the forces that Russia airlifted to Kazakhstan. Read more below in this article.
On January 24, readers sent us another video of a moving of a convoy of Russian military equipment across the territory of Belarus. InformNapalm OSINT investigators established that the Russian convoy was moving along the highway near Zhodino (Minsk Oblast, Belarus) in the direction of Minsk. The video of the convoy shows Russian commander’s vehicles, radio stations with powerful generator units, hardware control systems, etc. All the license plates on the vehicles spot the region registration code of 50 (Moscow Oblast). According to our analysts the video recorded the movements of a brigade-level communications and control subunit.
The Russian satellite communications station mounted on the KamAZ-4350 truck attracted special attention of OSINT investigators. It is known that two-axle KamAZ trucks are normally used by the Russian airborne troops. This gave us an additional clue.
Further, InformNapalm volunteers managed to find a photo of the same station with the same license plate 8600 AO (region 50, Moscow Oblast) in Vitaly Ragulin’s photo report from Patriot Park in Kubinka. The photo was taken on July 29, 2017 during the celebrations on the occasion of the 87th anniversary of the Russian Airborne Forces (archive). It is in Kubinka that the 45th SOB of the Russian Airborne Forces is stationed. That day, the vehicles of the brigade were involved in the demonstration performance attended by the Russian Minister of Defense and the Commander of the Airborne Forces.
From Kazakhstan to Belarus
On January 6, the InformNapalm reported that Russian military transport aircraft airlifted servicemen of Russian special operations airborne units to Kazakhstan. Servicemen of these units participated in the operation to seize Crimea and in the aggression against Ukraine. Among these units were also military men and equipment of the 45th SOB.
On January 24, volunteers from the Belarusian editorial team of InformNapalm published their own OSINT investigation, exposing signs of a covert deployment of Russian airborne units to Belarus. The deployment was disguised as the “return of Belarusian peacekeepers” from Kazakhstan. In particular, we noticed the loading of airborne troops’ vehicles with Russian license plates bearing the region registration code of 50 (Moscow Oblast).
Conclusion
These findings give us grounds to believe that the Russian Federation has already secretly deployed units of the 45th SOB to the territory of Belarus.
- The hidden movement of this unit against the background of the announced measures to test the potential of the Russian Federation and Belarusian forces may be an element of an information and psychological operation. The purpose of the operation may be the desire of the Russian Federation to demonstrate to the West the “lightning speed of the forces deployment” (some of which have de-facto been secretly deployed in advance). That is, Russia is probably engaged in military deception to achieve its political goals. During the Russian operation in Kazakhstan, Russian diplomats and propagandists used the narrative that Russia “could give NATO a handicap” in the rapid deployment of troops. It is possible that the Kremlin decided to continue its psychological pressure on the NATO countries in order to mislead the leaders of these countries about the combat capabilities of the Russian Army for a rapid offensive and blitzkrieg. Russia seeks to undermine the unity of the NATO countries and split them into camps of those who are ready to resist the Russian aggression and those who will be inclined to give in to Putin’s blackmail.
- At the same time, we should not rule out the possibility of a Russian offensive operation against Ukraine, preparations for which may be disguised by the Kremlin as plans to conduct joint military maneuvers on the territory of Belarus. However, this scenario can be consistently implemented only after achieving relevant political goals and undermining the unity of the NATO countries in terms of resistance to the hybrid aggression of the Russian Federation.
Read more from InformNapalm
- Proofs of the Russian Aggression: InformNapalm releases extensive database of evidence
- Volunteers gathered evidence of 32 Russian military units taking part in the invasion of Crimea
- Advanced Russian EW system Navodchik-2 spotted in Donbas for the first time
- By end of year, Russia plans to set up twenty new military units near its western borders
- Spotted for the first time in the Donbas: Russian radar system Kasta-2E1 (PHOTO)
By Roman Burko specially for InformNapalm. Translated by Artem Velichko and Svitlana Kemblowski. We welcome redistribution and reprinting of our materials with reference to the original source (Creative Commons – Attribution 4.0 International – CC BY 4.0). InformNapalm social media pages: Facebook / Twitter / Telegram / Slate (Sl8).
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