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As always, if you have any information that you think would be of interest to us please reach out via DM or email. Falls Sie Informationen haben, die für uns von Interesse sein könnten, bin ich per DM oder E-Mail erreichbar.
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Please read the full story for more reporting from @zverev_live @m_tsvetkova and @reporter_polina. As always, great to work with @ChristianLowe4 and @jmaclondon on this. reuters.com/investigates/s…
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Here are some of the other figures involved in public rallies and online work to push a pro-Kremlin message. Seewald is behind a Telegram account called that shares memes and German translations of Putin's speeches. He's been cited by Bavaria's verfassungsschutz as an extremist.
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Eremenko has also been pictured with Igor Girkin. Six yrs ago, Eremenko took part in a Russian dating show where a close associate of Girkin appeared on stage as one of his friends. Asked about it all, he said: “Too much information will do no favours for the pro-Russian side"
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Eremenko confirmed to Reuters that he worked for the GRU. He said he served inside Russia but declined to give details. “I served, and that’s it,” he said. “I’m now in Germany in, let’s say, a civilian status,” promoting Russian culture and memorialising World War Two dead.
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Over the summer in Berlin, a man in a suit attended an event held by the German Communist Party. At one of the event panels ("Peace with Russia") the businessman, Oleg Eremenko, argued that Ukrainian youths were being taught to hate Russia. @Reuters reuters.com/investigates/s…
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Max Schlund actually used to be called Rostislav Teslyuk in Russia. His partner’s brother said Schlund served as a senior lieutenant in the Russian Air Force. In 2022 Schlund completed a transaction to buy an apartment in Moscow, according to Russia’s property registry.
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These include organizers of several pro-Russia protests in Cologne who traveled together to Donbas last year to distribute aid. In a video of their trip, Elena Kolbasnikova and Max Schlund thanked the People's Front, a group headed by Vladimir Putin, for help organizing the trip.
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We have discovered, through interviews and a wide review of social media posts and other online information, that key figures in this campaign in Germany have links to the Russian state or to far-right movements. reuters.com/investigates/s…
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NEW: We've spent several months investigating pro-Putin activists across Germany who are agitating for Berlin to cut aid to Ukraine and pursue peace with Russia. Here are some of our findings...
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Anyways I kind of suck at twitter and I forgot to number the thread but thank you for reading our @specialreports story. Grateful to work with such a superb group of indefatigable reporters and editors @m_tsvetkova @zverev_live @ChristianLowe4 @jmaclondon reuters.com/investigates/s…
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In Sept the Balakliia bunker came under heavy attack. Locals saw soldiers throwing their guns and equipment away and retreating. In this telegram vid shared by @RALee85, you can hear Ukrainian soldiers talking about the complex being hit with HIMARS twitter.com/RALee85/status…
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I found this unsigned curfew card by Granit in his office across the street from the police station. His men also held people in the basement. His name shows up in daily briefing rosters in the command bunker and it appears he attended the meetings in person.
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Locals in Balakliia were routinely detained and tortured. Relatives of detainees like Tetiana would petition a military commandant called V. "Granit" and try to get them released. He'd turn them away. Granit's office sat across from the police station, where people were tortured.
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In July, Commander Popov got even worse news: the FSB had learned that Ukrainians were moving HIMARS to the area. Precise strikes followed. An Aug. 30 spreadsheet showed that the force was at only 71% of full strength. The 2nd assault battalion had 49 personnel instead of 240.
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Morale was deteriorating. An officer wrote on July 24 that someone called Shtanko was a “bastard” facing disciplinary action because he “pulled back his platoon”. We found Shtanko and his dad. His dad said Shtanko refused an order to “send his men into artillery fire.”
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Throughout July, Russian officers in Balakliia were increasingly anxious about equipment shortages. They finally got 3 quadcopter drones on July 20 but they weren’t ready to fly because their software wasn’t installed yet. They also needed to train soldiers to operate them
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Another document, a spreadsheet, showed the pay discrepancy between Russian and Luhansk soldiers. A typical Russian sergeant was paid 202,084 roubles a month in salary plus bonuses, while a sergeant in the separatist force received just 91,200. So less than half.
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A mixture of soldiers from Russia and separatist Luhansk occupied the building. The head of a Luhansk flame-thrower company recorded in one document that eight of his subordinates had previous convictions - including one man for rape and sexual assault.
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More photos from the command bunker. Propaganda posters warned that Ukraine would descend into Nazi rule if the Russian troops left. The furnace at the back of the bunker room was stuffed with documents. They left a plastic bag of more papers to be burned stuck to the furnace
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From a roster of daily briefings and other documents seen in the bunker, here was the command structure in place in Balakliia. Ivan Popov headed the military grouping for "Balakliia". He's since been promoted to general, according to his wife. 3/x
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The documents - some half burnt in a furnace in the bunker - show Russian troops anxious over the arrival of HIMARS and grappling with desertions and casualties. One soldier said it was like playing "roulette". Ukrainian strikes could land anywhere. reuters.com/investigates/s…
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NEW: We reviewed more than a thousand pages of Russian military documents left behind in a command bunker in Balakliia, Ukraine. The documents shed new light on Russia's chaotic retreat from the Kharkiv area in Sept. Thread with some of our findings 1/x
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NEW: Documents and other clues left behind by retreating Russian troops in Bucha point to the units behind the town's brutal occupation, including an elite, paramilitary force that reports up to Putin's former bodyguard reuters.com/investigates/s…
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I spoke to a Japanese office worker who said he called the Ukrainian embassy to volunteer to fight on Monday.
"It's not that I want to go to a war, it's more that I would rather go than see children forced to carry guns," the 39-year-old said. reuters.com/world/asia-pac…
Special Correspondent @Reuters. Get in touch: mari.saito@tr.com // DM for signal #