Similarly, "bean bag rounds" are typically filled with lead shot, not plastic. They can fracture your skull and kill you. After I got hit with one in 2020 (thankfully in the leg), an Austin Police Department officer acted surprised there was metal inside.

I just learned that callsign "white" (Белый), the commander of the Akhmat unit who in the summer of 2022 "castrated" and murdered a Ukrainian POW, has been reported dead. Happy Vyshyvanka Day.

What a steal!

Over at Bellingcat, they're hiring a researcher/trainer who can focus on conflict research. Fully remote, with occasional travel to workshops, conferences, etc. Pay is between 60-73k USD. www.bellingcat.com/bellingcat-i...

In our latest investigation, we identify the former Wagner fighter and admin of a racist Telegram group behind a Russian fashion brand that sells clothing items glorifying far-right ideology and the Russian mercenary group Wagner. www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/03...

Three years ago, on this day, Russia introduced a new article into its Criminal Code: the dissemination of “fake news” about the Russian army. On that very day, I left my country, and the next day, law enforcement officers came to my home in Moscow to arrest me. 1/2

you can just make out the duct tape on the rear of the drone in the CPAC photograph over the control surfaces. it's hiding the caution warnings in russian (не браться -- do not remove) that would leave no doubt as to where it came from

If only there was something else Shaheds were better known for.

Is Russia executing captured Ukrainian soldiers? The numbers have surged in recent months. In our new documentary, we show how each of the 80 deaths we've logged could potentially amount to a war crime. Watch the film here: youtu.be/eik1Lf0dPTg

"In a barren field, seven unarmed soldiers emerge from a dugout at gunpoint, arms raised above their heads. Some of them appear to trip and fall as they climb out of the ditch and are ordered to lie face down..." 🔽 80 Executions (7 min read)

Tyva seems to heavily favor corrupt officials over war criminals.

In 2022, we put out a report on Bellingcat about Ochur-Suge Mongush, who joined "Akhmat." He was filmed sexually assaulting and murdering a Ukrainian POW. www.bellingcat.com/news/2022/08... A video surfaced of him complaining about not getting free land from the state. t.me/ne_zhdi_novo...

In awe at how lame Redut medals are

In a special free edition of our Bellingchat Premium podcast, we talk about covering the invasion of Ukraine using open sources with Bellingcat researcher @michaelsheldon.bsky.social and the @nytimes.com Visual Investigations Reporter @aric.bsky.social. Listen in on the link below! 👇

An image analysis by Bellingcat shows an infamous Russian neo-Nazi with ties to the controversial paramilitary Wagner Group may be depicted in a photograph showing a man holding a severed head in Syria... www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/01...

Read my latest for @bellingcat.com The Man in the Matching Uniform: Investigating a Rusich Atrocity in Syria www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/01...

Put it into Google Earth to get a sense of where the remaining flights may have headed.

Tracing the video from t.me/CinCAFU/648 gives a slightly better overview of what's what in a pretty chaotic radar image. From my understanding, the green track appears to be the A-50, and blue would likely be the IL-22 heading to emergency land at Anapa.

Western battery hanging out in the same spots.

Neat.

Looks like the Stroitel S-400 unit recently moved from its usual fields to a different location to the south-west. Snow cover makes the individual components visible even in lower-resolution satellites.

The new Wagner x Stone Island collab is crazy.

Bellingcat contributor Ollie Ballinger developed a tool to estimate damage in Ukraine. He has now repurposed the tool to estimate the number of damaged buildings and the likely affected population in a given area within the Gaza Strip. www.bellingcat.com/resources/20...

Over late October and early November, military cargo flights in and out of Kaliningrad were at an uncharacteristic high. Bellingcat went to investigate what these flights could be moving using SAR imagery… www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/11...

For the past week I've been monitoring Sentinel-1 imagery for S-400 sites in Kaliningrad, some of which appear to have been at least partially vacated. We have an article in the works that will go into more detail.

Equatorial Guinea claims to use a luxury yacht for military operations, but why? New Bellingcat researcher @oldpete45.bsky.social investigates the use and movement of this extravagant vessel: www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/11...

"for participation in the Bakhmut meatgrinder"

In North-east Nigeria one young man’s execution-style killing is captured on camera. Here’s how Bellingcat and Reuters traced the young man in blue shorts to find out where he was killed www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/11...

When the US Department of Defense published a video seemingly showing a UFO in the Middle East, Bellingcat contributor Nathan Patin and data scientist Logan Williams went to work using open-source techniques to verify claims of the unidentified flying object.

Not something you see every day. A Russian soldier with a thermobaric TBG-7VL round (thanks @godin.bsky.social for the ID). Presumably summer 2023 in Zaporizhia oblast.

Playing around with S1 large scale change detection on Burevestnik AB. Displayed are composites of the mean S1 returns over 180-day periods starting at January 2022 and 2023, respectively.

After a photo was posted on Telegram on Monday apparently showing the disgraced Russian General Sergey Surovikin- open source researchers hurried to geolocate it. The general’s whereabouts have been unclear since a June falling out with the Kremlin. www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/09...

Looking at the S-300V4 site at Burevestnik AB, which was recently reported to have been moved off the Kuril Islands. The systems are clearly visible in Google Earth imagery dating to early August 2022. english.kyodonews.net/news/2023/08...

While at the Chekalov funeral today, Fontanka took pictures of graves visited by Wagner affiliates with red roses. They recognized one convicted criminal by the name of Andrei Levandovsky among the graves. t.me/fontankaspb/...

Stroitel site. Aug 22 vs 27.

Sheino site. Aug 22 vs 26.

Russia’s operation to smuggle grain from occupied Ukraine is evolving. A new investigation by Bellingcat, @scrippsnews.bsky.social & Lloyds List has tracked ships taking grain from Crimea direct to Iran. Grain exports have also begun from other occupied ports

I was looking around Luhansk obl on Google earth and noticed updated imagery from 2022. You can now see the trench in Privyllia where a Ukrainian POW was tortured, executed, and discarded by Russian forces in summer last year.

Starting from the beginning of Russian drone-buying volunteers Katya and Valya's big trip to China...on 8/12/23, they arrived in Beijing and mentioned new Chinese export restrictions, loopholes, and exchange rate issues. https://t.me/katya_valya_dnr/3418

One of my favorite lazy open source activities is looking for new air defense locations near Belgorod. Because S-300/400 are made up of so many large vehicles, they're easily recognizable even on Sentinel-1 and 2 imagery. Particularly since they rarely go very far from previous sites.