Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has identified 72 Russian phone numbers and several Russian military units in the forest where Ukrainian photojournalist Max Levin was executed in cold blood a year ago.
The body was found by Ukrainian police on April 1, 2022 in a forest north of Kyiv with multiple gunshot wounds.
His friend Alexei Chernyshov, a member of the Territorial Defense Forces, was likely burned alive, RSF said in a statement on Wednesday.
The death came in March, when Russia withdrew from Kyiv and other territories in northern Ukraine to concentrate troops in the east and southeast.
RSF teams have already made four trips to Ukraine to investigate the murder, given the lack of resources from the Ukrainian authorities.
According to the cell phone repeater, 72 numbers of Russian cell phones located in the area of the murders were identified, as well as Max Levin’s phone number.
In addition, RSF recorded the presence in the area at that time of members of the elite units of the Russian Armed Forces, in particular the 155th Marine Brigade, which was identified using drones and Ukrainian intelligence services.
This unit suffered losses in February and March 2022, with about 90% of the elements killed, wounded or captured.
In February, the RSF interviewed 12 Russian prisoners from this brigade who claimed to have joined the unit after the withdrawal to make up for the loss of personnel.
The organization assured that during the interview, one of the prisoners assured that only three units of the brigade had the type of weapons and ammunition that were used in the murder of Levin.
“The help of the Ukrainian authorities, civilian and military, in terms of investigation and intelligence is necessary to accurately identify the perpetrators of this double murder,” said Arno Froger, head of the RSF investigation department.