{"id":8818,"date":"2016-08-05T12:02:40","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T12:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/?p=8818"},"modified":"2016-08-05T12:07:14","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T12:07:14","slug":"aug05-tochka-u-donbas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/aug05-tochka-u-donbas\/","title":{"rendered":"Tochka-U, Russian Military Losses, and Other Coincidences Of August 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in March 2016, the Petr and Mazepa website published an interesting article by <\/span>Serg Marco<\/span><\/a>, called \u201c<\/span>When the Gods of Artillery Use \u201cTochka-U<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span> The article covered the details of the use of the tactical rocket systems 9K79-1 \u201cTochka-U\u201d (NATO designation SS-21 Scarab B) and multiple launcher rocket systems 9K58 BM-30 \u201cSmerch\u201d by Ukrainian Armed Forces against Russian Army units in the summer of 2014 in Donbas. If the words of the Head of the Ukrainian General Staff Viktor Muzhenko are to be believed, Ukrainian missilemen were delivering devastating blows to the battalion tactical groups of Russian military during the active phase of the Russian intervention in Ukraine. But was this information actually correct?<\/span><\/p>\n

The volunteers of the international community InformNapalm decided to check this statement by comparing the dates of rocket strikes with the dates of deaths of Russian servicemen or other unusual events in the field of military medicine, since this kind of rocket strikes often results in high numbers of casualties.<\/span><\/p>\n

On August 13, 2014, the reconnaissance assets attached to the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) headquarters detected a battery of BM-21 \u201cGrad\u201d multiple rocket launchers near the town of Snizhne. By the decision of the missile and artillery branch of the ATO headquarters, the 1st Rocket Battalion of the 19<\/span><\/i>th<\/span><\/i> Separate Rocket Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (military unit A4239 based in Khmelnytskyi) conducted a single rocket strike, which destroyed the battery.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

We quickly found the confirmation of the deaths of four servicemen<\/strong> of the 17<\/span>th<\/span> Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Russian Army (military unit 65384, based in Shali, Chechen Republic) on August 13<\/span>th<\/span>, 2014. That confirmation was a memorial stele installed in the territory of the brigade\u2019s base. It said that Sergeant Dmitriy Sergeevich Goncharov, Sergeant Ibragim Arslanbekovich Dzhankhuvatov, Private Ahay Aidemirovich Sajitkhanov, and Private Aleksey Viktorovich Upenok died on August 13, 2014 while \u201cperforming their duty\u201d, without specifying the exact causes of deaths (see more in our publication <\/span>\u201cInglourious Basterds\u201d: Memorial to Servicemen of the 17th Motor Rifle Brigade at Shali, Chechen Republic<\/span><\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the subscribers to the <\/span>Euromaidan<\/span><\/a> twitter account<\/span> made a good remark about this stele: <\/span>\u201cFive years passed with no losses, and then sudden August heart attacks start happening<\/strong>\u201d. <\/span><\/i>And somehow those \u201cheart attacks\u201d happened on the exact same day, when the Ukrainian Army conducted a Tochka-U rocket strike against Russian occupants\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us look at another episode.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the loss of Savur-Mohyla, one of Ukrainian scouts, who was leaving the area on foot, found a group of Russian Army troops near the village of Pavlovske, where the road goes to Amvrosiivka. The scout then called his commander and reported the information.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

On August 27, 2014, at 10:30am, the camp was attacked by multiple <\/span><\/i>Tochka-U rockets. The scout, positioned near the camp, provided targeting for the strike. It is impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of the strike precisely, however, according to the soldier, the camp was completely destroyed. After the strike, the soldier went towards Ukrainian positions and as late as 7pm he could still hear the sounds of ammunition explosions coming from the direction where the rockets hit the target. Unfortunately, I could not find, which Ukrainian unit conducted the strike, but I think that it was the same 1st RB of the 19<\/span><\/i>th<\/span><\/i> Brigade.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

This information reminded us about the report published by the popular Saint-Petersburg media website \u201cFontanka\u201d: \u201cEyewitnesses: \u2018Ambulance Vehicles Accompanied by Military Moving Through Saint-Petersburg<\/a>\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe readers of \u201cFontanka\u201d are reporting that ambulance vehicles are moving through the city, accompanied by military traffic police units. The first report was received by the editor\u2019s office at 6:27pm on Wednesday, August 27. \u20187 military ambulances with their emergency lights on and accompanied by military traffic police are moving along Kamennoostrovsky avenue\u2019 \u2013 wrote Petersburg resident Pavel. In a phone conversation he specified that the procession was moving from the north, where the military airfield is located. Another report came several hours later and had pictures of the procession attached: \u2018Around 9pm we noticed a column of ambulances with emergency lights on and accompanied by military police. They left the military airfield Levashovo and drove in the direction of the city.\u2019 \u2013 wrote the reader Sergey in the comments to the pictures he sent. According to the comments \u201cFontanka\u201d received from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, and ambulance services, there were <\/span><\/i>no registered emergencies in Petersburg on August 27<\/i><\/b>th<\/i><\/b>, <\/i><\/b>which would require this many special vehicles to transport the injured.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Thus, on <\/span>August 27, 2014 <\/b>witnesses saw two columns of ambulances at 6:27pm and 9pm. The first column included 7 ambulance vehicles, while the number of vehicles in the second one wasn\u2019t specified. The ambulances, along with military police units, were moving from the general direction of the military airfield Levashovo, which is the base of the 33<\/span>rd<\/span> Separate Combined Air Transport Regiment (including An-72, An-30, and An-26 fixed wing aircraft and Mi-8 helicopters). Based on the information about Russian servicemen we found in hacked mailboxes, we know that the 1602<\/span>nd<\/span> Military Clinical Hospital of the Russian Defense Ministry in Rostov-on-Don was used to treat the wounded arriving from the territory of Ukraine, while the more severe cases were transported to the Kirov Military Medical Academy in Saint-Petersburg \u2013 for more, see <\/span>this report<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most likely, on August 27 the wounded were transported to the military airfield Millerovo (about 90 kilometers driving distance from the location of the rocket strike).<\/span><\/p>\n

It is also known that after the treatment in the Military Medical Academy the servicemen are transferred to the Branch 14 of the 442<\/span>nd<\/span> Military Clinical Hospital in the village of Kamenka in \u00a0Leningrad Oblast for rehabilitation \u2013 see more <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>. Is this another coincidence?<\/span><\/p>\n

Another interesting fact: obviously, with the increase in the number of patients, the needs for medical supplies increase too. Let us look at the bid applications made by the Kirov Military Medical Academy.<\/span><\/p>\n