Russian army’s secret unit that guides missiles at targets in Ukraine is found - journalistic investigation . PHOTOS
Russian missiles are guided at targets in Ukraine by a special unit within Russian Armed Forces Main Computing Center (GOC).
As informed Censor.NЕТ, this is stated in a joint investigation by journalists of Bellingcat, The Insider and Der Spiegel.
Journalists analyzed the data of thousands of specialized military graduates.
The GSC, where some of them went to serve, seemed to the investigators to be the place where trajectories for missiles could be calculated.
To test this hypothesis, they examined the metadata of telephone conversations of the head of the center, Major General Robert Baranov.
Analysis of his calls from February 24 to the end of April 2022 showed that every time before cruise missile launches, he received calls from one specific number belonging to Colonel Ihor Bahniuk, registered at the address of the GOC.
Then journalists studied the metadata of Bahniuk's calls and found that he intensively communicates with more than 20 military engineers and IT specialists from the GOC. Based on clusters of repeated calls, they identified a team of 33 military engineers reporting to Colonel Bahniuk.
All of them are registered at the same address - Znamenka, 19 in Moscow, where the building of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff is located.
The vast majority of these people are young men and women with backgrounds in information technology and even computer game development.
The GOC unit discovered by journalists consists of three teams, each of which programs the flight trajectories of one specific type of high-precision missiles:
→ ZM-14 ("Kalibr", sea-based) - Ivan Popov, Matvey Lyubavin, Roman Kurochkin, Ekaterina Chugunova, Sergey Ilyin, Yuri Nikonov, Georgy Starostin, Dmitry Tikhonov, Nikolay Tarasov and Igor Groza;
→ 9M728 (R-500, Iskander tactical missile systems, ground-based) - Oleksii Mykhailov, Pavlo Obukhov, Elvira Obukhova, Mykyta Poplavskyi, Viktor Jaskelainen, Oleksandr Hryhoryan, Volodymyr Petrov, Artem Vedenov;
→ X-101 (airborne) - Artem Chernov, Oleksii Betekhtin, Andrii Ivanutin, Anton Chulikov, Olha Pysmenska, Pavlo Vasyliev, Oleksii Volkov, Anton Shatun, Stanislav Minkov.
The gunners themselves categorically deny that they work in the GOC and have any relation to the shelling of Ukraine.
When investigative journalists began to contact the gunners using the phone numbers from the billing records, they all admitted that the phone numbers belonged to them, but categorically denied that they worked at the Main Computer Center and had anything to do with the shelling of Ukraine.
For example, one of them admitted that his name is Sergey Vladimirovich Ilyin, but stated that he is "self-employed" and works as a plumber: "I have nothing to do with any calculations, except for those needed for plumbing work."
Lieutenant Artem Vedenov, responding to the number we found in the billing, did not deny that he was Artem Vedenov, but said that he worked at a pig farm and did not have any valuable data: "I don't mind talking to you, but what can I tell you - how to cut pork? Or how to scrape chickens properly?"
Captain Yuriy Nikonov stated that he is a bus driver and the information about his work in the computer center is "some nonsense". Major Ivan Popov said that he is just learning to program in Python, does not know about any computer center and it is pointless to ask him about guided missiles: "It's like I would ask you about ballet now, you know?".
Lieutenant Kateryna Chugunova replied: "I have a flower shop. You are definitely mistaken".
When journalists showed some of the gunners a photo of them standing in military uniform with a sign of a computer center, they were embarrassed. Thus, for example, Volodymyr Vorobyov also initially stated that he had nothing to do with the GVC, and when he was shown a photo in uniform, he replied with a mysterious phrase: "For the first time in my life I see. Especially in uniform..."
One of the engineers agreed to share with us, on condition of anonymity, some contextual information and several photos of the route-computing unit of the GWC, which stands in front of the Ministry of Defense in Moscow.
The immediate commander of the missile guidance unit of the GVC is Colonel Igor Bagnyuk. Born in 1982 in Riga, he graduated in 2004 from the Serpukhov branch of the Strategic Missile Forces Academy, specializing in information systems for Russian missiles. Bagniuk served in the military unit 29692 (2027 aviation technical staff) near Vladimir until at some point, no later than 2010, he was transferred to Moscow to serve in the GVC.
His photo, obtained from a GVC officer, shows that Bagnyuk was awarded the medal "For Participation in Combat Operations in Syria". This medal has been awarded to Russian servicemen since 2015 (Russia has repeatedly used guided missiles in Syria - for example, in strikes on Aleppo in 2016).
