Thread by @brechtcastel

We all have seen Ukrainian tractors 🇺🇦 dragging Russian tanks 🇷🇺.

Where do they go? 🤔

We traced the “V5” in this #TikTok. It reveals France 🇫🇷 breaking the arms embargo against Russia.

Investigate! 🧵👇 1/…

#OSINT🔎
#Verification 📽️
#GeoLocation 🌍
#HowToOSINT 🧐

The TikTok video with this BMD-4, a landing combat vehicle, was shot west of Kyiv.

@sammy7000 from @GeoConfirmed found the location with Google Streetview. 📍✅

How? 📺👇2/…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed The tractor with the “V5” drove away from the besieged towns of #Irpin and #Bucha in a southerly direction.

Russian vehicles with a “V” entered Ukraine from Belarus and fought around Irpin and Bucha.

You can check on this map from @Cen4infoRes . 3/…

maphub.net/Cen4infoRes/ru…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes This 👆 suggests that the V5 was involved in one of the most gruesome phases of the war.

On 13 March, photos surfaced of the Georgian legion of the Ukrainian army posing in front of the Russian V5 (left).

On 3 April, Ukrainian soldiers did the same (right). 4/…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes So the V5 had come into the hands of Ukrainian troops 🇺🇦 - after fierce fighting or by mutinous Russians, that is not known.

We are sure that all these photos show the same vehicle: the bullet marks in the vehicle form a kind of fingerprint. 🐾 5/…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes The V5 also appears in the tv-report of 1+1. 📺

This report led to a Russian missile hit after #OSINT volunteers geolocated it.

Read more about this in the first part of this investigation on ☠️ KILLER COORDINATES 📍➡️

https://twitter.com/brechtcastel/status/1537046371907342338

6/…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes Again, the the bullet marks in the vehicle show this definetly is the same vehicle. 👀 7/...

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes Maybe the V5 was NOT in the warehouse when it got bombed on April 16...

It reappears in this video on #YouTube uploaded on Apr 21. 8/…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes Importantly in this video, the background was blurred. ⬛️

Possibly to make it impossible for Russian OSINT investigators to determine the location of the vehicle this time. 📍🚫 9/…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes This YouTube-video puts France 🇫🇷 in a tight spot.

The armoured vehicle contains a thermal camera with the 'un-Russian' name Catherine FC.

These thermal cameras are manufactured by Thales, a company of which the French state is the largest shareholder. 10/…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes That thermal camera, which is integrated into a tank's visor system, can detect a target within a radius of about ten kilometres, day and night. 🎯🌃

It's a very high-tech tool that provides an extremely important tactical advantage. 11/…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes Thales said to the Frence investigative journalists of @Disclose_ngo “no export contract for defence equipment has been signed with Russia since 2014 and there have been no deliveries to Russia since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine”. 12/…

disclose.ngo/fr/article/des…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes @Disclose_ngo Indeed, this camera was not manufactured in France, but in 2016, in the Russian city of Vologda. 🗺️

Thales entered into an agreement with Russia's Vomz in 2009.

Vomz is a member of the Russian-state owned Rostec defence conglomerate. 13/…

goo.gl/maps/ci1q7TSA5…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes @Disclose_ngo ❗️Despite the EU sanctions, Russia, with the support of Thales, was able to produce the thermal cameras that were to equip the tanks deployed in Ukraine. 14/…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes @Disclose_ngo @Disclose_ngo revealed in March that France exported 152 million euros 💵 worth of arms to Russia between 2015 and 2020, despite the European embargo imposed after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. 15/…

disclose.ngo/en/article/war…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes @Disclose_ngo CONCLUSION: A Russian bombing of a warehouse in Kyiv had an unexpected tail.

France appears to be secretly supplying weapons to Russia.

Traces of this can be found on social media through combining sources with #OSINT. 16/…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes @Disclose_ngo This investigation 👆 was international TEAM WORK. 🤝🙏 🇩🇪🇧🇪🇫🇷🇮🇳🇮🇹

Do me one favor, follow these amazing OSINT investigators: @Techjournalisto, @ArchitMeta, @amra_dorjbayar, @AlbertoOlivie13, @akhmxt
and volunteers from @GeoConfirmed. 17/...

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes @Disclose_ngo @Techjournalisto @ArchitMeta @amra_dorjbayar @AlbertoOlivie13 @akhmxt You can read our full report at @Cen4infoRes. 🙏 17/…

info-res.org/post/killer-co…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes @Disclose_ngo @Techjournalisto @ArchitMeta @amra_dorjbayar @AlbertoOlivie13 @akhmxt And read the full investigation in 🇧🇪 magazine @Knack
this week. 📰 19/…

knack.be/nieuws/wereld/…

@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed @Cen4infoRes @Disclose_ngo @Techjournalisto @ArchitMeta @amra_dorjbayar @AlbertoOlivie13 @akhmxt @Knack Did you learn something from this #OSINT investigation?

Follow me (@brechtcastel) and check out my channel on #YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCMBPt…

Older 🧵🧵 underneath this tweet:

https://twitter.com/brechtcastel/status/1390688405416198145

20/END