Featured in the Helsingin Sanomat

Venäjän puolella [On the Russian side] is a investigative article by Finnish Helsingin Sanomat – the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries. The news report is the result of months’-long research and investigations conducted alongside German broadcaster RTL into a large volume of foreign fighters who had gone to fight for Russia-aligned militias in occupied eastern Ukraine. Some of whom had since returned home.

The work undertaken by Helsingin Sanomat and RTL is based on a list of named foreign fighters compiled by me through careful analysis of content from the Myrotvorets Research Center, InformNapalm, OSINTBees, in addition to my own OSINT collection and analysis. Based on this work, my commentary on the outcome of the results and the security implications associated with the return of several foreign fighters to their home countries.

Specifically, the work focused on the detailed analysis of social media accounts associated with named foreign fights to determine social connections to other named fighters and the additional analysis of media content to gauge the level of militancy activities undertaken by each. Lastly, members of known Wagner Group-aligned proxies were analysed in order to ascertain social connections with named Wagner Group fighters.