Occupier’s Lost Smartphone Discloses How Russia Prepared To Attack Ukraine From Homel Region Territory

• 8.11.2022, 16:17

Journalists found a lot of interesting data in the phone.

A Flagstaff reader found a smartphone that previously belonged to a Russian army officer. The journalists of the publication studied the contents of the device.

The information from the smartphone was given to the Flagstaff editor by a person who did not want to identify himself. Also, we cannot name the exact place where the smartphone was found. Having studied the entire array of information, the Flagstaff editors came to the conclusion that the materials from the smartphone are not fake, and are verified by the data of the social media of the owner of the smartphone and his relatives.

This material is based on photographs stored on the device, as well as the personal correspondence of the military man with his wife on the Viber network and his colleagues in the chats of the Telegram and WhatsApp networks.

Information from the smartphone made it possible to establish that it belonged to Major Deputy Company Commander for Educational Work of the 37th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade stationed in the city of Kyakhta Pavel Yuryanov. From the passport photo found in the phone, it was indicated that he was born in the village of Horonkhoy (Republic of Buryatia) in 1980.

The content of the political officer's correspondence makes it possible to assess the morale of the Russian military before the start of the invasion of Ukraine.

Based on the correspondence, it can be assumed that preparations for the attack began as early as 2021. On December 23, 2021, the major told his wife that there would be no more days off. Yuryanov was not released from the military unit even on New Year's Eve.

The realization of what was happening was a serious stress, forcing him to take sedatives. Apparently, his wife also knew that her husband might end up in the war.

The material and technical supply of the military personnel who were being prepared for war was organized very poorly. This can be judged by the fact that Yuryanov's wife bought the jacket and the Chinese radio station before he was sent away.

Despite internal anxiety, the political officer continued to lead propaganda work among the military. “The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are at the forefront of the fight against international terrorism. Extremism and terrorism as a threat to the national security of Russia”, “Patriotism is the statutory and moral duty of a serviceman” are the topics of lectures that he organized on the way to Belarus.

“We’ll meet again if that is God’s will”

The echelons with the Russian military arrived in Belarus at the end of January. According to the photographs from the phone, it can be assumed that the Rechytsa district was the place of intermediate deployment. The major apparently told his wife on 4 February that this would not be just a drill. From that day on, he made no secret of the fact that he might never return home again.

Already in Belarus, it turned out that some of the servicemen did not receive the due monetary allowance. Flagstaff counted 17 corresponding reports in the phone's memory. It turned out that these servicemen were enrolled in the composition just before they were sent. Personal files have not yet been accepted, so they were promised to make an accrual only in March.

The correspondence of the political officer contains evidence of the provision of the territory of Belarus for aggression against Ukraine. In the Telegram chat called “On the barricades” on February 6, ciphers of the negotiation table were published containing the names of the settlements of the Homel region: the Barshchouka training ground, the Baranavichy training ground, the Rechytsa settlement, the village of Biazueva (probably Biazueu, a village near Rechytsa, where a field military camp was located in January-February 2022).

The same chat contains evidence of the use of the Palesse State Radiation and Ecological Reserve for the armed aggression against Ukraine. The place of unloading of weapons and military equipment is designated as an “abandoned village”. Its coordinates correspond to the Dziarnovichy tract (the village in the Naroulia district of the Homel region, resettled back in 1986 due to radiation). From Dziarnovichy to the station there is only about 30 kilometers. The group, formed west of the Prypiats River, took part in hostilities in the Zhytomyr region, seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and also stormed the northwestern suburbs of Kyiv.

The smartphone did not contain more precise indications of the further path of the political officer.

Thus, by correspondence, it is possible to restore the path of Major Yuryanov: in order to get from the military unit located in the Buryat Kyakhta to the Belarusian-Ukrainian border in the Naroulya district, he traveled more than six thousand kilometers.

On February 23, the day before the attack, Major Yuryanov photographed the order of the column of military equipment, in which there were 62 vehicles: mainly KamAZ, Urals and ZiLs (the estimated length of the column is 3,150 meters).

On March 16, the political officer photographed a new list of equipment. This time there were only 15 vehicles in it, one of which was crossed out. The numbers of the vehicles and the names of the servicemen coincide with some of the names that were indicated in the convoy the day before the attack.

Yuryanov's social media accounts are inactive today: the last recorded visit to the VK network occurred on February 17, 2022, a week before the start of the war. The last entries made by the owner of the phone are dated March 17. Yruryanov’s relatives did not report his death on the network of obituaries; no such publications were found in the Buryat media either.

In one of the social networks, Flagstaff asked a friend of his about Yuryanov’s fate. He said that Yuryanov died in Ukraine in March 2022. Yuryanov is survived by two minor daughters.