Recently the number of videos of the weapons and military equipment of the Russian Army in Donbas has substantially reduced. This does not mean that the amount of weapons decreases. But aggressors no longer feel at home. They understand that each frame, each photo is now handled by specialists and volunteers and involves them in a big trouble.

The amount of markings, signs and ID numbers, that can be detected on the Russian military equipment, has substantially decreased as well. Russian soldiers have to reject the idea of “La Grande Vadrouille” in Ukraine. For the InformNapalm team, these changes mean an opportunity to switch our focus to the material that has been already published. The material that was already reluctantly published by terrorists themselves is enough for a lot of reviews, devoted to identification of the invasion forces.

In November 2014, BBC journalists spotted a convoy of Russian T-72B tanks in Ukraine. Fenders of these tanks were decorated by catchy inscriptions ‘Baber’ [a ‘Beaver’ misspelled with ‘a’ instead of ‘o’] and ‘Rita’.

A passion of Terrorussians to give names to their tanks is funny, although this activity does not require any artistic talent. It is akin to painting the toilet walls: skills are not required, but the trace is left. ‘Shaluns’ [a Varmint], ‘Tanyushas’ and ‘Babers’ are now travelling all over the Internet. Another branded armored tortoise was identified around the same time as ‘Baber’:

A fellow of ‘Mech’ [a Sword] tank photographed above was found in a convoy near Starobeshevo, Ukraine. Their relatedness is confirmed by an arrow on the upper front of a hull plate. Their unit is called ‘Donetsk’ tank battalion and it comprises 7 Russian T-72B tanks with Н2200 marking on their sides.

One could have gotten already used to all this. A war in the East of Ukraine is lasting for almost a year. All this time Russian army uses tanks and artillery, trying to establish control over Donbas and to advance further to the West, towards Mariupol, Kharkiv and Kyiv. For almost a year groups of marginals having Russian citizenship imitate separatists and ‘militiamen’, trying to create a smokescreen called ‘Novorossia’ over these hostilities. There is nothing surprising that the same branded tanks appear in different places, imitating a flurry of activity.

But ‘Baber’ surpassed everything this time. Oddly enough, the camouflage of this tank sold Russia down the river.

A two tone camouflage was very rare for the separatist tanks up to now. It could almost be mistaken for the camouflage of Ukrainian tanks (see the photos to the left below), but a closer look reveals substantial differences in the pattern of dark and light green spots.

Nevertheless, I am strongly confident that I already saw the camouflage pattern of the T-72B from Starobeshevo. But where did I see it?

Well, how about this? They are the same, right? Or are you still in doubt?

All three tanks match by several elements: pattern, geometry, distribution of spots, and even the location of the active armor blocks! An area, where the tower fits the body, remains unprotected by these blocks. This is very rare for Russian T-72s in the ATO zone.

So, the color pattern and the location of the active armor blocks of both tanks, ‘Baber’ and the one from Starobeshevo, match the tanks that participated in the Tank Biathlon 2014 Competition held in Alabino near Moscow. Tanks with this camo were used by teams from Armenia, India and Angola. I do not know whether the Russian Defense Ministry decided to move all these or only some of these tanks to Ukraine. But I know for sure that ‘Baber’ and the two-tone Starobeshevo tank came from Russia.

Original article by Al Gri, translated by Maria Holubeva, edited by Gennadiy Kornev.