You're reading: Bellingcat reveals more proof of Russian military aggression against Ukraine

The secret cross-border strikes of Russian artillery against Ukrainian army played a key role in the development of war in eastern Ukraine. A new report by Bellingcat, a citizen investigative group, reveals it was more frequent and massive than it was believed before.

While Russia denied ever having its artillery firing at the Ukrainian army from within the Russian territory, these attacks made it impossible for the Ukrainian troops to liberate the entire territory of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts from the Russian-backed separatists in summer 2014, leaving parts of it occupied till today.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has taken nearly 10,000 lives and forced about 1.7 million people to leave their homes. The fighting in Donbas still continues, with Ukrainian soldiers being wounded or killed almost daily.

The Bellingcat report, published on Dec. 21, proved that there were at least 149 cases of the Russian cross-border artillery strikes during July-September 2014. “Recent additions of satellite imagery to Google Earth, Yandex, and Bing maps services now provides us with the evidence to map Russian artillery fire in 2014 to a much fuller extent,” the report reads.

One of the first and the deadliest cases of cross-border shelling occurred on July 11, 2014, near Zelenopillya in Luhansk Oblast, where dozens of Ukrainian soldiers were killed by Grad multiple rocket launchers fired from the Russian territory.

Denys, a former soldier of the 72nd mechanized brigade, told the Kyiv Post his unit was stationed not far from Zelenopillya and he personally saw the massive shelling.

“They burned them alive,” he said, refusing to give his last name because he wasn’t authorized for giving comments to the press.

He added that on the next day the Russians started shelling his own position.

Denys believes that without Russian artillery strikes across the border the Ukrainian troops were able to keep control over the border area, which would prevent the separatists from receiving reinforcement in people and arms.

Yevhen, another soldier of the 72nd brigade, told the Kyiv Post he was stationed in summer 2014 near Amvrosiivka village in Donetsk Oblast, located near the Russian border. He remembers the massive Grad shelling of his military unit from Russia.

“It was huge. Our commander simply disappeared after that and I met him several months later at the military base,” Yevhen said, refusing to give his last name fearing retribution from his commanders.

Analysts from the Bellingcat group said they detected thousands of artillery projectiles fired by the Russian army in Ukraine.

They also found proof that the shelling was intensifying from early July 2014 up to early September 2014, up to the time when Ukraine’s representatives were forced to sign an unfavorable ceasefire agreement in Minsk – a deal that didn’t hold and is known as Minsk-1.

The shelling didn’t stop even after the separatist forces downed on July 17, 2014 the MH-17 Malaysian Airlines airplane with 298 people onboard, the report said.

When analyzing each firing position, Bellingcat used at least two experts. If there was no agreement between them, the third analytical opinion was obtained, the report said.

Bellingcat compiled all its findings in the following interactive map.

Bellingcat found that the cross-border artillery attacks took place in the entire border area in both Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts.

“Cross-border artillery attacks preceded the Russian offensive operations south of Ilovaisk and east of Mariupol,” the report added.

Vadym Troyan, who was then a deputy chief of Azov volunteer battalion, told the Kyiv Post in late August 2014 that his unit was shelled by Grads from the Russian territory when they were approaching the Ilovaisk city. The massive shelling was one of the main reasons why Azov soldiers had to stop their attacks and retreat, he added. Now Troyan is an executive head of the Ukrainian National Police.

In late August 2014 the Ukrainian military reported about the massive invasion of Russian regular army in eastern Ukraine, the fact which was also confirmed by many reports in Western press.

Bellingcat found the separate proof of the Russian invasion, analysing the satellite images. They detected on the satellite images the new military positions inside Ukraine’s territory between the Russian border and Ukrainian troops near Ilovaisk and Novoazovsk.

“The possibility of this being made up of local ‘separatist’ troops is therefore extremely low,” the report said.

Bellingcat also identified the photos of Msta-S self-propelled howitzer, which can be distinguished thanks to its specific shape and size dimensions.

The Msta-S howitzers, which is extremely rare in Ukrainian army and commonly used by the Russian troops, were largely present at the separatist-controlled parts of Donbas in Aug. 23 – Sept. 3 near Novoazovsk town of Donetsk Oblast, the satellite pictures show.