The missile that hit Kramatorsk could be launched from the occupied territories - CIT
KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO – 8 APRIL 2022, 16:44
CIT investigators believe that the missile that hit the Kramatorsk station could have arrived from the Russian-occupied territories. They also think that it could not have been a "provocation of Ukraine".
Source: Conflict Intelligence Team
Quote: "The photo of the wreckage clearly shows the rocket part of the "Tochka U".
Photographs and videos show that the rocket part faces the northeast, which means that the missile may have arrived from the west, southwest or south".
Details: Investigators note that the rocket part fell to the ground and apparently did not roll over during the fall, otherwise it would have fallen apart. So this method can be applied for determining the trajectory.
It was stated that the Russian Ministry of Defence also points to the south-western direction of arrival, claiming that the launch was made from Dobropillia, which is controlled by Ukraine.
However, in the south-western direction (for example, south of Vuhledar and in the area of Velyki Novosilky), within the flight range of the "Tochka-U" missile (120 km), there are positions of Russian and "separatist" forces, so the launch could have been made from there", - admitted in the CIT.
If we ignore the direction of the missile unit, the investigators write, it is possible to assume that the launch was carried out from Shakhtarsk, controlled by the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" (southeast of Kramatorsk), where before the hit there was a launch of some missiles - in this case, sooner or later the second rocket part will be also found.
However, investigators note that reports published by pro-Russian channels about falling into the "accumulation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine" can hardly be a direct admission of guilt by Russia.
"In our experience, such channels often publish footage of shelling of residential neighbourhoods found on the Internet and pass it off as strikes on Ukrainian military facilities," the statement said.
More suspicious was the warning issued by the pro-Russian channel on the night of 7-8 April, where residents of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk were advised not to evacuate by rail.
In addition, the Russian Defence Ministry has repeatedly reported attacks on railway stations west of Kramatorsk.
According to the claim of the Ministry of Defence of Russia, the country allegedly does not have "Tochka-U" complexes in its arsenal. But the CIT reminded: at the end of last year, it was reported that the 47th Missile Brigade of the 8th Army, stationed east of Donbass, was armed with the "Tochka-U" system and it could be seen in local television reports.
The 47th brigade received the "Iskander-M" only on 26 January 2022, less than a month before the invasion, and hardly had time to master it, investigators say.
It is also known that Russia used the "Tochka-U" complexes in the Kyiv direction. The echelon with launchers with the "V" sign (Russian military vehicles in Ukraine are prominently marked with this letter - ed.) was noticed in Gomel (Belarus) during the withdrawal of troops from the Kyiv region. Activists of the "Motolko Pomohy" project ("Motolko help" - ed.) have previously reported on the supply of these complexes to Belarus.
Investigators consider the version of "provocation of Ukraine" spread by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation unbelievable.
Background: On 8 April Russians hit the train station in Kramatorsk with ballistic missiles.
According to preliminary data, the rocket attack in Kramatorsk killed 50 people, including 5 children.
The Prosecutor General's Office reported that at the time of the attack on Kramatorsk station, there were 4,000 people there, most of them women and children.