Russian Troops Traced To Ukrainian Battlefields Through Social Media

New submitter wienerschnizzel writes: Vice News has released a report on how they were able to trace a member of the regular Russian army from his base near the Ukrainian border toward the battlefields in the contested territory in eastern Ukraine, then back to his home in Siberia using the pictures he uploaded on his social media profile.

The methodology used is based on a report by the Atlantic Council think tank released earlier this year, which asserts that information on the movement and operations of the regular Russian troops can be easily gathered from publicly available sources (such as the social media). The Russian government still denies any involvement of Russian troops in the fights in Ukraine.

Comments

So?

[dunkelfalke]

Putin will still keep insisting that the soldiers are on their vacation or have been honourably discharged shortly before.

It is seriously not news, not since the photos of a disabled T72B3 have been published. Russia actively helps separatists in the region and will continue doing so in the foreseeable future.

Re:So?

[dunkelfalke]

There was no signed agreement, just a memorandum, which is neither binding nor really applicable in this case (it is about Ukraine being attacked with nuclear weapons).

The actual treaty that has been broken by the presence of Russian troops there is the Belavezha accord, which opens another can of worms entirely, but, frankly, American involvement in that matter is, indeed, very much questionable, as would be the involvement of the rest of NATO.

And as for your "as they so frequently have been" - so far a NATO country hasn't ever been under attack (except for that short skirmish between Turkey and Greece, which, incidentally, are both NATO countries). There was zero reason for NATO being involved in anything whatsoever but unfortunately Americans don't know the difference between defense and offense.

Re:Volunteers?

[halivar]

Do Russian soldiers often take their tanks on vacation with them? How stupid do you have to be to believe this?

Re:Absence of OPSEC is compensated by disinformati

[dunkelfalke]

Funny thing is, while you are completely right with what you write, these comments have indeed some truth in them.

There have been more than enough fake reports from Ukrainian government. For fuck's sake, they've once even claimed that they were attacked by Russian tactical nukes, which lead to facepalms even in their own parliament. I've been to Ukraine two months ago, their mass media really is crazy hysterical and lying. I thought that German mass media here is bad, but it is like BBC compared to Fox News.

And there are indeed neo-Nazis in Ukrainian national guard. I've seen them, too. Scary stuff. They are not a majority anymore, not since the draft has begun. But the volunteers in the beginning of the conflict were mostly the militant arm of Maidan - neo-Nazis.

It is also true that Ukraine is a failed state. Has been a failed state for 20 years.

Even so, it is not an excuse to send troops there to kill people and destabilise the situation even further.