Quick 🧵/ Izyum mass graves. 1/11: Geolocation. This cemetery is not new, it’s known among locals as a "forest cemetery" or "Pishanske cemetery" (myizyum.in.ua/forum/viewtopi…) and located here: 49.2207, 37.2444, on the street named after William Shakespeare.
2/11 A long time ago, this cemetery was actually the burial place of unknown Soviet soldiers who died here back in 1942 (polk.ru/forum/index.ph…).
4/11 Many of the graves are of Ukrainian soldiers, others were claimed back then to be civilians who died under the shelling. The books with their names and dates of death have been kept.
5/11 Most of the entries seen on this page of the book are from the middle of April. Izium has been under Russian control since April 1st. bbc.com/russian/news-6…
6/11 Some entries though are from March, probably civilians who died because of the RU shelling. May 30th satellite images by @planet show multiple destructions all around the city. Whole quarters have been damaged, both before and after April 1st.
7/11 Most of these destruction were visible in March too, when the city was under Ukrainian control, meaning that they’re the result of Russian shelling. Like this partly demolished multi-storey residential building (photo March 20)
8/11 I checked some addresses in the cemetery book on @planet sat imagery – buildings are intact, but that doesn’t mean, of course, neither that the person was massacred as a pro-Ukrainian, nor that the person couldn’t have died in the shelling in the other place.
9/11 Local Ukrainian authorities agree that most of the people buried in the cemetery died because of the shelling. (t.me/currenttime/16…)
10/11 Head of the Kharkiv oblast police Serhii Bolvinov says: "We know that some were killed [shot dead], some died because of artillery fire, so-called mine explosion traumas. Some died because of airstrikes". news.sky.com/story/ukraine-…
11/11 The case should be investigated thoroughly by Ukraine authorities, but I think it’s too early to speak about "mass executions" in Izyum and attribute this cemetery to them / end of the thread.
P.S. Here's the new video from the site by @radiosvoboda, with tombs of the people who died under the Russian shelling and strikes in the beginning of March ().
⚡️While most (or many) people buried there died because of the strikes or shelling, looks like others are indeed were unlawfully prosecuted and killed locals.
Photo evidence of the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers with hands tied (photo @radiosvoboda, @serhiinuzhnenko). Local authorities say around 20 tombs of UA soldiers were found among around 400 tombs at the cemetery.
It is worth mentioning that back in May, pro-Russian TG channels wrote that this is the grave of UA servicemen, whose bodies Ukraine "refused to take back". Now, as we see those hands tied, we know that this is a blunt lie: they are most probably POW's who have been just shot.
Funeral company: "Some employees stayed under the occupation, tried to continue their work. Locals approached and asked to bury their relatives or neighbors. Russians imposed rules of their own and often threatened them, demanding to bury people only under their total control".⬇️
🧵Russian MoD finally approves the wording of the stamp which is being stamped on military IDs of "refuseniks", soldiers who refuse to take part in a "special military operation in Ukraine". My source sent me a photo of his friend’s military ID with exactly the same stamp.
"DESERTER! Refused to perform a combat mission! Prone to BETRAYAL!" should be (and is) written on the stamp.
This document with the new wording was published by a Russian lawyer, who helps "refuseniks" to fight for their right to go home instead of fighting in Ukraine. Here’s my recent interview with him. rferl.org/a/russia-ukrai…
1/4 Hi resolution satellite imagery by @planet of the aftermath of the August 31rd Ukrainian strike on a Russian ammo depot in Tokmak (occupied Zaporizhzhya region, 47.233 35.706).
2/4 Russia says just 15 tons of grain were burned as a result of the strike. It's indeed a granary, but as the OTG footage shows with a very special grain in it, tending to explode, and explode again, and again.
3/4 The reason Russia stores ammo in such a locations is simple: they have their own railway links.
Soldiers from the 1st Motor Rifle Regiment, part of elite Russian unit, 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division (Kalininets, Moscow region), were based in Izyum and massively asked their commander for dismissal on August 30th. Everyone there knew what's going to happen.
This regiment takes part in the invasion since the very beginning, and has tens of confirmed POWs and God knows how many KIAs.
Among those are 3 (!) platoon commanders and 2 deputy commanders. All of them are from anti-aircraft platoons. 2 of them are commander and his deputy from the same 4th platoon. Other guys are from the unit's anti-aircraft division too.
🧵/ link in last tweet. The Ukrainian army liberates cities in villages in the Kharkiv region, trying to encircle Russian forces. Russian soldiers are busy taking photos. Thread about the newly revealed locations of the RU army near Izyum.
This guy, Oleg Budulaj, has fought in Donbass as a "volunteer" since 2015. On Sep. 6th he posted several photos while being in Gorokhovatka, west of Balakliya.
Geolocation enabled when he posted the photo (archive.ph/TBFnG) shows that he posted from here: 49.34856, 37.5275. This is quite a luxury villa with a pool. Together with @cxemu we learned that it belongs to Ukrainian businessman living in UA-controlled territory.
🧵I spoke with a Moscow lawyer, who helps Russian soldiers to legally address issues they face while fighting in Ukraine. To put it mildly, the situation is far from perfect. No rotation, payments are suspended, no payments for those wounded in Crimea or Russia (like Belgorod).
There are several VK and Telegram groups where soldiers can ask for legal help. I have already referred to some posts from those groups in my tweets. Some groups are already taken down by VK admins. Others still exist and mirror perfectly the grim situation in the RU army.
"He has been there since February". This mother of 2 small kids asks if she can legally demand RU MoD to let her husband come home for a while for the first time since the war broke up. No, the lawyer says, she can’t.
🧵/ link in the last tweet. It’s not only Russian tourists who reveal positions of the Ru army by posting photos on social media with geolocation turned on. Soldiers themselves do that too. Here are some recent examples from the Kherson region, area of the UA counter offensive.
On August 27th, a user called "Sergey Shturman" posted 2 photos of himself near BM-21 "Grad"(archive.ph/GnfWc). He didn’t switch off geo, so here it is: water pump station near Berislav. No other buildings are in the vicinity, which proves it's correct (46.8621, 33.3627)
Russian forces and its proxies from the L/DNR often use such civic infrastructure objects to set up their bases. Another set of photos from VK (archive.ph/ImV0r) reveals the base in Berislav itself, in the office of a local water supply company (46.836054, 33.394393).