The 144th Guards Motorized Rifle Division is stationed in the area of Yelnya. On Tuesday, November 2, military expert Vladislav Shurygin recalled this in an interview with Izvestia, commenting on an article by Politico with pictures of Russian tanks allegedly near the border with Ukraine.
He stressed that the units and divisions of this division also exist in the Bryansk and Smolensk regions, adding that the division began to be formed back in 2014.
"Russia did not hide information about the formation of the 144th division. This has been repeatedly reported by the Ministry of Defense. Moreover, there is information about this compound in many NATO reports on the Russian armed forces. The photo clearly shows that this is the division's military equipment park, the construction of which was completed several years ago. This object can be found even in Google Maps. Well, I would like to note that Yelnya is located on the border with Belarus, and not with Ukraine," Shurygin said.
A Politico article titled "Satellite images show another build-up of Russian military power near Ukraine" was published on November 1. As reported in the material, the images taken by Maxar Technologies demonstrate the buildup of armored units, tanks and self-propelled artillery, as well as ground troops concentrated near the city of Yelnya. In addition, the authors of the article stated that parts of the 4th Panzer Division of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were allegedly moved to the areas of Bryansk and Kursk near the northern border of Ukraine.
On November 2, the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov called the satellite images of Russian tanks allegedly published by Politico near the borders with Ukraine "low-quality stuffing". He noted that the quality of these publications is not even worth commenting on and paying attention to them. In addition, the Kremlin representative also stressed that the movement of Russian military equipment or army units on the territory of the Russian Federation is exclusively a matter for Russia, and Moscow has never threatened anyone, and does not understand.
The day before, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting in Sochi on defense issues that Moscow would respond to attempts to break strategic parity adequately to the situation. He drew attention to the fact that currently the foreign colleagues of the Russian Federation are deploying elements of global missile defense in the immediate vicinity of the country's borders.
Reports about the alleged transfer of part of the Russian forces on the western flank of Russia, in particular to the border with Ukraine, appeared on October 30 on the pages of the American The Washington Post. Referring to European and American officials, the publication called the movement of the Russian military contingent on its territory "unusual."
