their
proof essentially consists of a stocky heavily bearded guy allegedly in South Ossetia 6 years ago ...but could have been from absolutely anywhere...wearing a poorly sewn on Russian military patch who bears a passing resemblance to a stocky heavily bearded guy in Eastern Ukraine. Namely because both of them are stocky and heavily bearded...which isnt really that odd among ethnic Russians. To my eyes they definitely dont look like the same guy. The one in ossetias nose looks different to the one in east ukraine . And both bearded guys look quite over the hill and unfit to be serving in a special forces unit as an infantry unit . Id suspect military veterans in both cases.
And the junta have just stuck up a caption on their pic just claiming the group as a special forces unit. Without identifying a single one of them.
The BBC are satisfied that caption then permits them to write
appears to be linked to a special forces unit, more than once.
heres another much larger pic of the bearded guy who was in the news last week. No way thats the same guy as the one
allegedly in Ossetia. Its absolute bollocks, the nose is very different to the vodka ruined one in Ossetia. You can see peeking out from the front of his cap his hair was originally black, not ginger. He even looks a bit younger than he did 6 years ago.
And I suspect thats why its worth noting the junta havent released it themselves but given it to the US state department, who themselves pronounce it genuine . Always able to claim later that their Ukrainian partners may have made a genuine mistake.
And also worth noting even the BBC and CNN are pointedly not claiming the evidence is authentic in a definite disclaimer , because its laughably fake when one gets a larger pic to look at than the one on the news sites.
And if one looks at the
little green men in Crimea , who definitely were special forces, youll note the kit they were carrying was often a lot more specialised than these guys...silenced Val 9 sniper rifles and pp200 smgs as side arms.Kord heavy machine guns . These ones definitely arent carrying anything like that in any of the footage Ive seen. Basic AKs and the odd RPG. No fancy stuff, no expensive grips, slides or sights. Just basic militia gear. In provinces full of ex Ukrainian and Russian military, Berkut etc.