Our investigation started with a Nepali politician liking a post from the public Facebook account of a Nepali member of the Russian Armed Forces. Due to the unusual transparency of said account, a number of other similar accounts were uncovered through his friends list, liked posts and linked YouTube channel.

Beginning in late 2023, Syrian regime propaganda began publishing photos and videos of Russian instructors training Syrian soldiers in the use of first-person view (FPV) drones. This investigation analyzes how Russia is leveraging the military experience it is gaining in its war on Ukraine as a means to further its influence abroad, the nature of FPV drone usage in Syria by the fallen Assad regime and the implications this had for the Syrian population, and the nature of Russian influence operations.

During our months-long joint investigation, we identified key points of military infrastructure; commissioned high-resolution satellite images of the bases; and verified Russia’s actual military capabilities near Poland and the Baltic countries’ borders. We also analyzed the changes in these locations over recent years.

In this 4 part investigation, we analysed available open-source information and potential evidence to identify key actors involved in the illegal transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children. We exposed potentially incriminating information on said actors, and mapped out a series of locations across the Russian Federation where these children are being taken to. We also took a deeper look into the scheme’s functioning, uncovering certain patterns regarding the selection of foster families for the “adopted” children.