The journalists of the Suspilne investigative editorial office received from a source the information about 151 Russian military specialists who train conscripted Russians. Some of the instructors, as the journalists managed to establish, have been fighting in Ukraine since 2014. Now they not only train Russian military personnel, but also have businesses and real estate in the occupied territories.
Earlier, the Suspilne journalists told about 12 Russian instructors in the investigation 12 instructors of the invaders: who trains conscripted Russians.
Ukrainian traitors — Russian instructors
68-year-old retired colonel Anatoly Maloletko is the commander of the raid battalion.
He was born in the village of Pavlyshi, Kirovohrad region, Ukraine. He then studied in Russia, served in the Soviet army in Germany, and fought in Afghanistan.
Later, he received an offer to become the first occupation military commissar of Crimea. He held this position for almost three years. In the spring of 2015, he became the organizer of the conscription of Crimea residents into the Russian army, which is one of Russia’s biggest crimes in the occupied peninsula.
Maloletko’s wife is also an ethnic Ukrainian. She was born in Osytniazhka, Kirovohrad region. She was a military servicewoman.
48-year-old private Vyacheslav Moskalenko trains conscripted Russians to operate anti-tank missile systems and heavy anti-tank grenade launchers. The man is from Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, and has Ukrainian and Russian citizenship.
In Ukraine, Moskalenko has a criminal record and a conviction for theft, probably of state property, on a particularly large scale.
Moskalenko currently lives in Voronezh. In 2014, he joined the "Central Cossack Army IV", which is part of the "All-Russian Cossack Society". Members of the "society", like Moskalenko himself, have been fighting in Ukraine since 2014.
43-year-old Denys Dymchenko taught conscripted Russians to shoot. The man was born in the village of Brylivka in Kherson region. The village is currently occupied by Russia.
From the age of 14, he lived and studied in Russia, and later entered the law faculty of the Vernadsky Tavrida National University and lived in Simferopol. Despite studying in Ukraine, he supported the "Russian world".
Dymchenko fought against Ukraine from 2014. When Russia occupied the Crimean peninsula, he joined pro-Russian "self-defense" units and became a member of the "Crimean Cossack army". In the propaganda media, he was called "a symbol of the militia".
Despite the war on the side of Russia, Dymchenko never renounced his Ukrainian citizenship.
Dymchenko will never train Russian soldiers again. In April 2024, he was killed in the Donetsk direction. The terrorist was buried in Sevastopol.
61-year-old colonel of the Russian army Vitaly Maksakov teaches conscripted Russians special training and tactics.
He indicates Saki in Crimea as his hometown. Previously, Vitaly had a Ukrainian surname, Miroshnychenko, which he changed in 2010.
Before the occupation of Crimea, Maksakov had a business in Rostov-on-Don. In 2014, as we found out, Maksakov was among the "little green men" who occupied Crimea. In 2014-2015, he was an instructor for the so-called "Donetsk People’s Republic militia". The man gained his skills and combat experience in the wars in Afghanistan, Transnistria, and Ukraine.
"They were not there"
63-year-old junior sergeant Zhanbulat Karabayev trains the Russian military to lay mines, as well as to use drones and pinpoint artillery fire.
The man is from the Russian resort town of Sol-Iletsk.
Zhanbulat fought in Ukraine before the full-scale invasion. On his social media, he posted photos in military uniform, as well as documents, in particular, a photo of a "temporary ID card of the "Luhansk People’s Republic".
Karabayev now has the call sign "Zhan" and continues to fight in Ukraine, probably in the 8th guards motorized brigade of the Russian Federation, known for its participation in the battles near Ilovaisk back in 2014.
Pavel Andreev, a 60-year-old major of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the USSR, trains conscripted Russians in general military combat, sabotage and reconnaissance.
Andreev is from the city of Grozny. He got his first combat experience in Afghanistan. According to the information from the "Peacekeeper" website, Andreev probably participated in the occupation of Ukrainian Crimea. He was also a member of illegal armed groups in Donetsk region.
Pavel Andreev was a participant in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Later, he launched a business selling Russian SIM cards.
Read more about 12 Russian military instructors in the Suspilne investigation.
Background information
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the journalists of the Suspilne investigative editorial office have been exposing Russian military personnel responsible for war crimes in Ukraine:
- the journalists identified the Russian military who killed a family in Bucha;
- those involved in a war crime in the village of Yahidne, Chernihiv region, were found with the help of a video by propagandist Chicherina;
- the Suspilne journalists investigated the disappearance of writer Vakulenko in Kharkiv region;
- the Russian military responsible for the shooting of four civilians in Bucha were identified;
- the investigative journalists analyzed and verified data obtained from the correspondence of the former director of Roscosmos Rogozin;
- through the story of a Ukrainian family, the Suspilne told about the Russification of Ukrainian lands;
- the journalists identified a Russian soldier who tortured Ukrainian prisoners of war in Kharkiv region.
In the documentary "Queue to Say Goodbye", the Suspilne investigative journalists told about the problems with identifying missing persons in Ukraine. The peculiarities of the procurement system and the situation with the development of the FPV attack drone industry were analyzed in the "Kamikaze Drones" series.
This material was funded by the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
