InformNapalm found an officer from Chechnya who lost his identity card and award documents in a Chelyabinsk forest.

Servicemen of the 17th Motorized Rifle Brigade (MRB), military unit 65384, formerly military unit 23132, stationed in Shali, Chechnya, 58th Field Army of the Southern Military District, have repeatedly come to the attention of the InformNapalm volunteer intelligence community. This infantry brigade is known for sending its tactical groups, reinforced with tanks and self-propelled artillery to Russia’s undeclared war against Ukraine, and suffering losses in the summer of 2014. Servicemen of the 17th MRB were among the first to get involved in the hostilities in Ukraine. Two years later, individual servicemen of the 17th MRB are still fighting in the Donbas, but in a slightly different status. Now they are posing as local “rebellious miners”, which will soon be revealed in a new OSINT investigation by our community.

This publication is not intended to sensationally expose the Ukrainian deployment of the Russian military men. We inly offer a few facts for the judgment of our readers.

In one of the social media groups of the 17th MRB, a curious announcement was made, dated August 8, 2016, about the documents of the 17th brigade officer Dmitry Yakimov, found in a forest near Chelyabinsk. Yakimov’s wife responded to the ad.

It was not difficult to find and identify Dmitry Yakimov. This Russian officer is quite active on social media: VK (photos , contacts) and OK.

Background details:

Dmitry Yakimov

Born February 6, 1990, in the village. Denisovo, Gorokhovetsky Rayon, Vladimir Oblast.

Education: graduated from the St. Petersburg Military Logistics Academy, 2012.

Same year, he began his officer’s career at the 17th MRB in Chechnya.

His career path and government awards are impressive. Less than two years later, Yakimov was promoted to the rank of Senior Lieutenant and to the position of a deputy company commander (presumably in a tank battalion). Moreover, he received awards – a medal and the Order of Courage.

The Russian military command and political leadership has been very generous with awards in the last couple of years, however the Order of Courage is a combat award not given out lightly. Apparetnly, Yakimov’s “courage” consisted in the carrying out clandestine orders of the Kremlin in the Donbas. Also, his colleagues in the 17th MRB from Chechnya are an artillery officer Gelimar , as well as contract soldiers Broskin and Pupin received the Orders of Courage for their participation in the war in the Donbas (this was substantially covered in past InformNapalm investigations).

In this regard, it is appropriate to recall another officer – a tankman from the 17th MRB, whom we spotted in the Donbas back in October 2014. The officer had all the attributes of a “rebellious miner” and was spotted near Snizhne in Ukraine. At that time, our information was presented as a current news report, with the main emphasis on a just fact or event with reference to the geolocation of subunits, weapons and equipment of the invaders. In order not to lose the source, the profiles of the invaders were depersonalized, their names were not disclosed.

Two years later, this source is still active on social media, although photos from Donbass have been removed.

This account is nicknamed Next Stierlitz on the VK social network (archived profile, photos, contacts).

On the OK social network (archived profile , photo album , contacts) it is nicknamed Kirill Malinovsky.

We found out that the holder of this accounts is called Stas or Stanislav. Originally from Nizhny Tagil. Graduated from the Kazan Higher Military Command School in 2009.

We should like to let Stas know that we will not give out his last name, but that we have studied all his connections, including relatives – from Anna Grechushnikova (Bazanova ), the Fatekhovs, the Subbotins, the Groshevs and all the way to his Crimean relatives the Brusnitsyns.

The 17th Motorized Rifle Brigade appears in seven OSINT investigations by InformNapalm:

• Veterans of Donbas from the 17th Mechanized Infantry Brigade and their Orders of Courage07/12/2016
• Another ‘Hybrid Miner’ from the Russian 17th Brigade2016-02-10
• The 17th Brigade in Donbas in Summer, 2014. Photo proofs2015-04-27
• 2S19 ‘Msta-S’ Self-Propelled Howitzer of the 17th Brigade near Novoazovsk2015-08-12
• Officer of the Russian 17th Motorized Rifle Brigade Awarded Order of Courage for the Donbas War2015-06-18
• “Inglourious Basterds”: a monument to the soldiers of the 17th Mechanized Infantry Brigade in Shali 2015-02-06
• “Tankman”: Russian Officer of the 17th Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade Who Participated in Armed Hostilities in Donbas2014-10-13
• The 17th Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Southern Military District of the Russian Federation is in Ukraine2014-09-09

This publication was prepared on the basis of an OSINT investigation of InformNapalm volunteer intelligence community by Irakli Komaxidze. Translated by Andrii Gryganski, edited by Artem Velichko.

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