RUSSIAN UNITS PARTICIPATING IN COMBAT ACTIONS IN UKRAINE

Sourse CESI has thoroughly analyzed and compiled a list of Russian regular army units participating or having participated in combat actions in Ukraine against the governmental forces. The data on these units’ participation were obtained from official statements and interrogation records of captured military men from these units, satellite surveillance data, as well as personal records of military men from these units posted in social networks and confirmed by the photos and location-base data (for those whose accounts were verified), alongside with messages from relatives of the dead or missing in action Russian military men during the period from July to October 2014. Some units are participating in the conflict not in full force, thus hindering the estimation of quantitative presence of Russian units in Ukraine. But, according to our estimations, this rate is equal to little less than 8 thousand people not simultaneously present in Ukraine. The analysis also speaks for losses in manpower and equipment in some of these units considerably surpassing possible army units’ losses in peacetime. These facts implicitly confirm the information on their participation in military clashes. Some units, mentioned in this report, are participating in the conflict from the RF territory, firing on Uragan 9K57 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, BM-21 9K51 GRAD Multiple Rocket Launchers, 9A52-2 Smerch-M Heavy Multiple Rocket Launchers, as well as artillery systems. The analysis results prove that at least 30 Russian army units, the location of which in Ukrainian territory can be confirmed, took part in combat actions. Despite the complexity of assessment of these units’ quantitative presence, the data received speak for the fact that participation of Russian units has the character of a full-scale armed invasion.