Over the past couple of months a battalion of the Russian/DPR forces has come to my attention. This battalion is called the “Viking Battalion”. The main reason they came to my attention was because it was revealed via social media (twitter) that they had been carrying out fairly large exercises in Ukraine. One thing that caught my eye when seeing the album on VK from an exercise was the amount of equipment they had which included multiple tanks and APCs. Due to the amount of military equipment they have it clearly points towards Russia supplying this hardware. As a result of this I wanted to look through their VK page to see if there was any evidence to point towards members of the Russian Armed Forces being involved in the battalion. Thankfully after several hours looking through their VK page I was able to find picture evidence of both the Vityaz Spetsnaz (604th Red Banner Special Purpose Center of the Interior Ministry) and the Russian Naval Infantry (Marines). Within this blog post I am going to write about who and what the Vityaz and the Marines are and go on to present the evidence I found of the Russian Armed Forces involved in the “Viking Battalion”.
The Vityaz was a special force unit (Spetsnaz) apart of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) until it was later merged into a single unit with Rus (Spetsnaz) in 2008 to form 604th Red Banner Special Purpose Center of the Interior Ministry which is under direct command of the Independent Operational Purpose Division (ODON). ODON is in control of rapid deployment of internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Vityaz are battle hardened and have been involved in plenty of Russia’s “affairs”. This includes the East Prigorodyn conflict, the Russian consitutinal crisis in which Vityaz was involved in indiscriminately gunning down anti-Yeltsin protestors and onlookers at the Ostankino TV center, the Chechen Wars where they were involved in assaults on Argun and Gudermes, and also said to be involved in the Samaski Massacre where over 250 people were brutally killed and the Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye and Moscow theater hostage crisis. So it is clear that the Vityaz knows what they are doing and have plenty of experience in doing it. Now it is time to look at the evidence which suggests that Vityaz are involved in the “Viking Battalion”.
As stated before I have been able to find picture evidence to suggest that members of Vityaz are involved in the “Viking Battalion” which means that they are in Ukraine. I was able to come across several pictures which shows both patches and berets of Vityaz. The first piece of evidence I will put forward:
As you can see in the above picture it shows a man wearing a Vityaz beret which is clearly shown and illustrated in the picture. The beret features a Vityaz pin on the side as well as a Vityaz cockade on the front. Furthermore you can also see his exact beret on the bottom right corner which clearly shows what I have mentioned above. It it also worth pointing out that I have seen the same man wearing the Vityaz patch which features in the next picture that will be shown. Vityaz patches:
The picture above clearly shows multiple men wearing the Vityaz patch. The man getting out of the car is also the same man wearing the red beret in the first picture. You may also be able to notice that the man in this picture wearing the black Vityaz patch also features in the first picture which suggests that they are closely connected and play an important part in the “Viking Battalion”.
As well as Vityaz being involved in the “Viking Battalion” there is also evidence of Russian Naval Infantry (Russian Marines). The marines are a premier unit within the Russian Armed Forces where they are generally trained for combat operations in amphibious landings, as well as defending naval bases, important parts of the coast and coastal facilities. Also the marines are used ‘as shock troops that carry out limited attacks and commando-style raids before the arrival of more conventional ground forces’ which would all come into use in Ukraine. It has become evident that in this conflict there has been multiple pieces of evidence suggesting that Russian Marines have been involved in several key battles in Ukraine which includes Donetsk Airport, Debaltseve and many others. However the main focus of this blog post is evidence of Russian Armed Forces within the “Viking Battalion”.
Working alongside Vityaz in the “Viking Battalion” are Russian Marines. Just like finding evidence regarding the Vityaz I was also able to find evidence of Russian Marines while going through the “Viking Battalion” VK page which offers plenty of pictorial evidence. The first picture includes two people in the “Viking Battalion” who are wearing a Russian Marines black beret as seen here:
As you can see in the picture above both members of the “Viking Battalion” are wearing the black beret of the Russian Marines with one of the members wearing the blue and white marine shirt underneath their camo. The next picture also features one of the men in the first:
As you can see in this annotated image it features a member of the “Viking Battalion” wearing a cap that has the Russian Marine emblem instead of the black beret he was wearing in the first picture. Also it is worth point out that the camo pattern of the cap he is wearing is know as SURPAT which is commonly used by Russian special forces which includes Spetsnaz, Russian Marines etc.
In conclusion, it has become evident that as a result of the pictorial evidence that was collected via the “Viking Battalion” VK page that there is elements of Vityaz Spetsnaz and Russian Marines that appear to be at least leading the battalion which makes sense as the “Viking Battalion” has a large amount of Russian equipment which includes multiple tanks and APCs that Russia wouldn’t want to go to waste so they make sure that they are in the “right” and experienced hands of the Vityaz Spetsnaz and Russian Marines.
For information regarding Russian Armed Forces within Ukraine in general it is worth checking out this Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) report:
http://cdn3.videos.bloomberg.com/bvi...st-ukraine.pdf
“Viking Battalion” VK page:
https://vk.com/public93369497
“Viking Battalion” military exercise album:
https://vk.com/album-93369497_215938433
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
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