The Man within the Matching Uniform: Investigating a Rusich Atrocity in Syria

This investigation comprises graphic photos and pictures in addition to references to killing and mutilation that some readers may discover distressing.

A picture evaluation by Bellingcat exhibits an notorious Russian neo-Nazi with ties to the controversial paramilitary Wagner Group could also be concerned within the staging of {a photograph} exhibiting a person holding a severed head in Syria.

Alexey Milchakov oversaw the far-right Rusich Group, described by specialists as a ‘contingent‘ of Wagner, the armed group that staged a rise up in opposition to Russian authorities final yr. Rusich has beforehand been implicated in struggle crimes in Syria and Ukraine, together with torture and mutilation. In line with Russian newspaper Kommersant, Milchakov has at numerous occasions shared command of Rusich with Yan Petrovsky. Each males are topic to sanctions by the US, EU and different governments.

On February 10, 2020, the Telegram channel of a distinguished Russian army blogger posted a picture of a person in uniform holding a severed head. Behind him was one other severed head and a backdrop of hilly, uncultivated terrain so far as the attention may see, smoke rising from the horizon. Then, on January 18, practically 4 years after the unique publish, Rusich’s official Telegram channel posted the identical picture earlier than deleting it shortly thereafter.

The face of the person holding the top had been censored within the picture, which can have been taken in 2017. Though references to an unobscured picture exist on social media, Bellingcat has but to find it. However by utilizing open supply analysis strategies, even the obscured model of the picture can shed some gentle on the id of this uniformed man within the hills exterior Palmyra. 

For the reason that picture was initially uploaded, additional imagery of Rusich fighters in Syria has surfaced, offering additional reference materials in opposition to which to match the picture. We used the association of camouflage patterns on the person’s uniform to conclude that his uniform is similar as that worn by Milchakov in a number of pictures seen on his social media accounts.

It’s, due to this fact, potential that the person holding the severed head is Milchakov himself, who’s also called ‘Fritz’ and ‘Serb’. 

This could not be the primary time that Wagner or Wagner-affiliated troopers have dedicated such acts in Syria.

In a press release posted to their Telegram channel after Bellingcat reached out for remark, Rusich wrote, “the acts depicted don’t represent a struggle crime as a result of a) we’re not army and b) we had been blissful to do it.”

Rusich didn’t straight tackle whether or not Milchakov was the person within the picture or concerned within the incident, although with none proof or rationalization recommended it may very well be a far proper Belarusian nationwide who fought alongside Ukrainian militants within the Donbas struggle.

Bellingcat tried to contact Milchakov by way of his VK account however acquired no response.

This picture was printed after a November 2019 article by the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta recognized a former Russian police officer as one among a bunch of Wagner mercenaries who recorded themselves torturing and mutilating a Syrian man in June 2017. The article and a follow-up from April 2020 are essential items of proof of atrocities by Wagner mercenaries within the nation, although no costs have ever been filed. (Warning: these hyperlinks include graphic photos of torture and mutilation.)

In the meantime, Rusich and Wagner Telegram channels have on a number of events posted different redacted photos exhibiting armed males sporting the identical uniform as that worn by the person who held up the severed head. These had been taken in the identical space of Syria because the aforementioned beheading picture.

Severed heads and different photos of excessive violence function closely in inside and exterior propaganda in Wagner’s on-line tradition. In Syria, photographs of heads on stakes and skulls had been broadly shared and, in some circumstances, became alternate logos for Reverse Facet of the Medal (RSOTM), a mercenary tradition model. In Russia’s present struggle in opposition to Ukraine, Wagner fighters and their supporters have distributed related imagery.

The Story of the Photograph

The Telegram channel that first posted the picture of the person holding the top belonged to Maxim Fomin, a Russian army blogger also called Vladlen Tatarsky.

Fomin fought as a member of Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Luhansk area, and was a central character within the Russian mercenary group till he was assassinated at an April 2023 occasion in St Petersburg that includes Russian propagandists.

The picture may very well be geolocated to an space close to Palmyra within the Homs province of Syria at coordinates (34.8766944, 37.9440556).

This location is simply 5 and a half kilometres northeast from the place the aforementioned torture and beheading of a Syrian man by the hands of Wagner mercenaries occurred in early 2017.

Visible options of the background with satellite tv for pc imagery (proper), allowed for the geolocation of picture. Utilizing Google’s terrain elevation knowledge, we had been capable of match the picture with a ground-view perspective on Google Earth and located that each one key particulars matched. These particulars included, however weren’t restricted to, the precise bends within the highway, the obscuring of different paths by hill curvature, and a T junction seen far within the background.  

This location is one among a number of strategic hilltops within the space, which was a hotspot within the struggle to retake Palmyra and its vitality assets from the Islamic State in late 2016. It was additionally 30 kilometres from this location that Alexey Milchakov was pictured in a swimming pool in Palmyra in a November 2017 article by Russian information web site Fontanka in regards to the presence of Rusich in Syria.

However when was the picture taken?

In posting the picture, Fomin added the caption, “a typical Syrian volunteer speaks to his Yorick” in Russian, referencing the well-known soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Hamlet through which the titular character ponders mortality whereas holding the cranium of a lifeless courtroom jester.

The “volunteer” within the picture, nonetheless, was not Syrian however doubtless a Russian nationwide. As Bellingcat has beforehand reported, Wagner’s social media channels have a observe file of intentionally posting deceptive details about their actions.

This consists of the favored Wagner-affiliated account Reverse Facet of the Medal (RSOTM), which reposted the picture on their now-deleted Instagram web page after Fomin’s Telegram publish. In response, some customers wrote feedback claiming that they knew extra in regards to the context of the picture. These are highlighted in yellow within the screenshot beneath.

For instance, the person ssg_west wrote “I’m severe, the picture is from the yr [20]16. Holms.” 

That is doubtless a typo for the Syrian metropolis of Homs, because the Russian letters O and L are adjoining to one another on the Cyrillic keyboard format. Whereas the yr is questionable, the placement is broadly right: the picture was certainly inside Syria’s Homs Governorate, that means that this Russian-speaking particular person both possessed geolocation abilities or knew one thing in regards to the context behind the picture.

The person landskneht14war claimed to know that they knew the writer of the picture, first writing the misspelt sentence “this isn’t a Sadyk” (a Russian slang time period for troopers within the pro-Assad Syrian Arab Military) then elaborating on it in an change with one other person.

“I noticed the unique a few years in the past and know the writer of the picture. It’s not a Sadyk”, wrote landskneht14war.

The id of the one who was beheaded isn’t recognized. A part of landskneht14war’s identify could also be a reference to the German-speaking mercenaries “Landsknechte” within the Holy Roman Empire, with 14 a potential reference to the white supremacist 14 phrases slogan. These clues counsel far-right beliefs that overlap with these of Rusich’s overtly neo-Nazi members.

Additional investigation of social media connections means that landskneht14war may be ready to know extra in regards to the picture.

When the writer seen Milchakov’s Instagram account in 2020, he discovered that it was adopted by landskneht14war. On the time of publication, each accounts had been deleted.

That this account belonged to Milchakov may very well be established by the identify “Yurievich Alexey”, that are Milchakov’s patronymic and first identify. When this profile was inputted into one among a number of Telegram bots utilized by Bellingcat to mixture leaked private knowledge, it returned additional affirmation.

The telephone quantity related to the Instagram account was related to additional social media profiles belonging to Alexey Milchakov. It additionally produced his full identify and date of start.

The identical quantity surfaced in leaked phonebook knowledge, that means the names by which cell phone customers have referred to this quantity of their contacts lists.

Amongst these phonebook entries had been the names Alexey Yurievich, Milchakov, Serb and Fritsulya (a diminutive for ‘Frits’). As talked about earlier, the latter are Milchakov’s battlefield nicknames.

James Gow, Professor of Worldwide Peace and Safety and Codirector of the Battle Crimes Analysis Group at King’s School London, advised Bellingcat that the picture probably exhibits violations of a number of struggle crimes statutes.

Amongst them, he defined, had been the Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC) Statute and the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross (ICRC) Canon of Customary Worldwide Legislation, each of which prohibit the mutilation of lifeless our bodies.

Discovering a Match

For the reason that face of the person within the picture was obscured, another technique had for use to determine him. Because of this, the writer started to analyse the uniform throughout his tenure on the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Analysis Lab (DFRLab).

Whereas camouflage patterns are repetitive, the patterns themselves will differ by way of the place they’re positioned on the uniform. Which means strips of cloth exhibiting the identical camouflage sample is not going to essentially be stitched collectively in the identical manner.

That is extremely helpful when trying to determine a person by evaluating a number of articles of clothes, similar to a jacket and trousers having the identical stitching sample. The picture beneath demonstrates this precept. US troopers from the 838th Navy Police Firm stand in formation sporting the identical camouflage sample.

Nevertheless, on nearer inspection there are some variations.

The flap on the breast pocket proven within the white containers differs. Whereas the camouflage sample itself is clearly the identical, the way in which that sample is minimize and stitched isn’t — particular person splotches of brown, inexperienced and white are in numerous places on the pockets.

We are able to apply this precept to the picture of a person holding a severed head in Syria. This entails evaluating the uniform to that seen in pictures taken from Milchakov’s account on VK, a Russian social media community, which include in depth details about his army service.

This account, which has the username ‘Alexey Serb’, consists of photographs of Rusich flags and a paramilitary id card from the ‘Luhansk Folks’s Republic’ through which Milchakov’s full identify and patronymic are seen (archived photos right here). 

The interactive graphic beneath cross-references particular person factors on Milchakov’s clothes. By hovering your cursor over areas of the uniform of the person holding the severed head, the illustration will spotlight the corresponding areas of the identical uniform in photos of Milchakov.

Interactive graphic by Logan Williams

The person within the picture who holds up the severed head wears a uniform with the favored “Multicam” styled camouflage sample. There are 4 matches within the positioning of the camouflage sample throughout three totally different elements of clothes (hat, smock, and pants).

For instance, the left sleeve of the uniform of the person holding the severed head bears the badge of the 234th Guards Air Assault Regiment of the Russian Federation’s 76th Guards Air Assault Division, which Milchakov has been seen sporting continuously in photographs posted to the aforementioned VK account.

Two black splotches may be seen on the hemming of the pocket going through inside his arm, on to the left of the division’s badge. The pocket flap bears a skinny brown line roughly one third of the way in which up. These point out both that the pocket flap was both minimize in exactly the identical manner from the camouflage cloth and that the pocket was hemmed utilizing cloth in precisely the identical place. Or, extra plausibly, it signifies that the 2 uniforms are one and the identical.  

As a result of man’s stance, the badge on his proper arm can’t be totally seen. Nevertheless, the matching uniform worn by Milchakov bears a badge with the Rusich emblem in that place.

This issue, mixed with the person’s look on Rusich’s social media posts, demonstrates that the person holding aloft the severed head was affiliated with Rusich.

There’s a low likelihood that two identically stitched items of camouflage clothes might seem collectively, however a mix of three separate items of camouflaged clothes with the identical sample carries a far decrease likelihood of duplication.

This means that the person holding the severed head wears Milchakov’s uniform and that he may certainly be Milchakov.

Bellingcat offered the photographs and evaluation of the camouflage worn by Milchakov on this story to the Navy Sciences Analysis Group on the Royal United Companies Institute (RUSI) for impartial evaluation. Noting that the positioning of the sample can be tough to pretend or unintentionally duplicate, RUSI decided the methodology used to match the camouflage sample on the uniforms to be “viable”, the evaluation of the photographs and sample “thorough”, and the conclusion that the photographs present the identical uniform “credible.”

“Most uniforms are distinctive due to the random meeting methods utilized by most producers,” stated Man Cramer, the CEO of camouflage producer HyperStealth BioTechnology, which has equipped forces in america, Canada, Afghanistan, New Zealand and Mexico. He famous that some international locations file the distinctive traits of uniforms on the level of meeting “to trace particular person restricted uniforms if that uniform is utilized in against the law or bought to a legal organisation.”

Cramer stated there’s “a really slight likelihood” that the uniform got here from a manufacturing facility that cuts similar patterns utilizing robotic cutters that trim the very same elements from the very same camouflage prints. “I’ve solely seen one nation do this with their uniforms and it wasn’t with Multicam,” he added.

Rusich on the March in Syria

This uniform identification additionally advances information of different redacted photos shared by Rusich, whose geolocation confirms a Rusich presence not removed from the location of the beheading picture.

Rusich has shared an abundance of media from these operations in recent times; variations in gear seen throughout these media counsel the group carried out a minimum of two separate excursions there. 

In 2020 the Norwegian media outlet NRK reported on the function of Rusich co-leader Yan Petrovsky and different far-right Russians with hyperlinks to Norway, the place Petrovsky as soon as lived. Final December, Petrovsky was detained in Finland on suspicion of committing struggle crimes in jap Ukraine, for which Kyiv has requested his extradition.

NRK additionally used commonalities throughout uniforms and equipment to determine Petrovsky in pictures from Syria, the place he admitted that his group had fought.

When requested by NRK about Rusich’s presence in Syria, Petrovsky stated that the unit had “targets” within the nation. When additional pressed in regards to the nature of their presence in Palmyra particularly, Petrovsky merely responded “struggle”. (Of their Telegram assertion following Bellingcat’s request for remark, Rusich stated Petrovsky “has nothing to do” with the picture of the person holding the severed head. His lawyer didn’t reply to a request for remark.)

Lately, Rusich has posted photos which present a person sporting the identical uniform and gear as the person who held the severed head.

This uniform may be seen worn by the person on the proper in following collage of two photographs, which was posted to Rusich’s Telegram channel on December 8, 2022.

Each individuals within the photos posed with the corpses of presumed ISIS fighters killed in battle. Bellingcat was unable to chronolocate or geolocate these photographs.

The same picture collage was posted by Rusich in September 2022. 

This time the person on the left wears the identical uniform as the person who held the severed head.

Each photographs may very well be simply geolocated – they had been each taken in Syria, within the hills to the north-west of town of Palmyra. The left picture was taken at (34.7413187777, 37.9193291545) and the proper at (34.6563923319, 38.1964929957), 27 kilometres aside on reverse sides of the identical vary of hills.

Three extra photographs posted to VK by Rusich in June 2022 confirmed armed males in the identical desert panorama close to Palmyra, Syria.

A more in-depth inspection of a number of of those photographs additionally reveals an in depth similarity with the positioning of the camouflage sample on the uniform Milchakov wears in photographs from his VK account: