The Insider and Bellingcat named the names of the employees of the secret main computing center of the Russian General Staff, leading missiles in Ukraine

The Insider , Bellingcat and Der Spiegel publications have published an investigation into the secret division of the Main Computing Center (HCV) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which is engaged in the aiming of high -precision missiles for targets in Ukraine.

In particular, the military engineers of this unit claimed missiles during a series of massive shelling of Ukrainian cities that began on October 10. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that it attacks the objects of the military and energy infrastructure of Ukraine, but the missiles also fell on civilian facilities. The Kyiv authorities reported the dead civilians as a result of shelling. The Kremlin called missile strikes by response to an explosion on the Crimean bridge in the Kerch Strait, which, according to the Russian authorities, organized the special services of Ukraine.

To calculate the employees of the units, journalists analyzed the data of thousands of graduates of the leading military institutes of Russia specializing in rocket science and target designation. As it turned out, those rackets who, after graduation, entered the service at the main computing center (HCV) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, were registered as living and working at the official address of the Russian General Staff-Moscow, Znamenka Street, the Media Center itself is rarely mentioned, its functions are described in military publications as “provision of IT services” and “automation” of the armed forces.

The authors of the investigation studied metadata telephone conversations of the head of the GVC, Major General Robert Baranov. As the analysis of his calls from February 24 to the end of April 2022 showed, each time before the launch of cruise missiles in Ukraine, which is known for open sources, the head of the center called the same number that, as the journalists found out, belongs to Colonel Igor Bagnyuk. He is also registered on Znamenka, 19.

Having examined Bagnyuk’s metadata calls, the investigators calculated the whole unit of 33 military engineers and ITSHNIKS, who are subordinate to the colonel. It consists of three teams, each of which programs the flight paths of one type of high-precision missiles: sea-based caliber cruise missiles, R-500 cruise missiles for the Iskander-based projects and X-101 cruise missiles.

Who serves in the GVC

Major General Robert Baranov

Colonel Igor Bagnyuk

Colonel Evgeny Kapshuk

Lieutenant Colonel Anton Timashinov

A team responsible for guiding "calibers"

Major Ivan Popov

Major Matvey Lubavin

Major Roman Kurochkin

Captain Sergey Ilyin

Captain Yuri Nikonov

Captain Grigory Starostin

Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Tarasov

Senior Lieutenant Dmitry Tikhonov

Lieutenant Ekaterina Chugunova

Lieutenant Igor Thunderstorm

A team responsible for guidance R-500

Captain Alexey Mikhailov

Captain Victor Yaskelain

Captain Elvira Obukhova

Captain Pavel Obukhov

Lieutenant Artem Vedenov

Lieutenant Alexander Grigoryan

Lieutenant Vladimir Petrov

Lieutenant Nikita Poplavsky

The team responsible for guidance X-101

Major Andrey Ivanyutin

Captain Anton Chulikov

Captain Alexei Betekhtin

Captain Artem Chernov

Senior Lieutenant Olga Pismena

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Vasiliev

Lieutenant Alexei Volkov

Captain Anton Shatun

Captain Stanislav Minkov

Journalists The Insider contacted the floods by calling "from the received billing." All subscribers admitted that telephone numbers belong to them, but denied that they work in the main computing center and have any relation to the shelling of Ukraine.

For example, one of them admitted that his name is Sergey Vladimirovich Ilyin, but said that he was “self-employed” and works as a plumber: “I have nothing to do with any computing, except for those that are needed for plumbing work.” Lieutenant Artem Vedenov, responding to the number that we found in Billing, did not deny that he was Artem Vedenov, but said that he was working on a pig farm and did not possess any valuable data: “I do not mind talking to you, but that I can tell you how to cut pork? Or how to pluck chickens correctly? " Captain Yuri Nikonov said that he was a bus driver and information about his work in the computing center-this is “some kind of nonsense”. Major Ivan Popov said that he is only learning to program at Python, he does not know about any computing center and asking him about controlled missiles is pointless: “This is how I would ask you about the ballet now, understand?” Lieutenant Ekaterina Chugunova replied: “I have a flower shop. You were definitely mistaken. ”

One of the engineers, on the terms of anonymity, shared with journalists photographs of Colonel Igor Bagnyuk and employees of the Route-computing block of the GVC on the background of the Ministry of Defense. The authors of Bellingcat found that this picture was taken in the courtyard on Znamenka, 19.