Tracing the Ukraine BUKs: 223rd Regiment based in Stryi, Lviv Oblast

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This post is based on the comments of Andrew. I believe it is interesting to place the comments in a post and let the crowd do additional investigation.

The 223rd Regiment is based in Stryi, Lviv Oblast. This Regiment also appears to have ended up in the ATO zone at least in Sector B, and there is copious video and pictures of their BUK’s available online. Their force structure includes 4 Battalions, and they use a numbering scheme for each Battalion different from the 156th as follows:
CP – X00
TAR/KUPOL – X01
1st Battery – TELAR X10 and X11, TEL X12
2nd Battery – TELAR X20 and X21, TEL X22
3rd Battery – TELAR X30 and X31, TEL X32
They also use a unique tri color paint scheme for some battalions of olive drab green, brown, and grey.

Home is here, at the abandoned Stryi airbase.
49°14’39″N, 23°46’23″E

Google Earth on October 5, 2013 gives a great indication of the scale of force available to this Regiment, as around 30 BUK’s are visible parked on base or deployed active just to the southeast at their firing positions on base. It was from this regiment that BUK’s were likely being reconditioned at UKRBORONPROM, as the numbering scheme of vehicles I have found makes me think the total number of BUK vehicles should be around 44, although this requires further investigation to confirm.

 

 

 

Unknown location, posted September 17, 2014. 223rd Regiment, 1st and 3rd Battalion/mixed Batteries
TEL 122, TELAR 121, TEL 322, TELAR 331 all without missiles, fuel tanker, support trucks, 2 trucks with missiles, loader crane truck, trenching digger and an excavator
http://s02.radikal.ru/i175/1603/07/edaadc9032fet.jpg

 

 

Supposedly Kherson Oblast, September 19, 2014. 223rd Regiment, 3rd Battalion. TELAR 3XX, CP 300, TEL 312, TELAR’s 321 and 311 all without missiles, various support trucks, 3 trucks with BUK missiles

The convoy is seen on the E97 motorway heading southbound towards Mariupol . They are close to the city of Kherson. The exact location of the video is here. (source webtalk.ru)

Given the dates, these movements probably represent vehicles returning to Stryi after the 1st Minsk Ceasefire Agreement.

These pages have pictures posted to VK.com by Father O. Mykhailo, a military chaplain apparently with the 223rd Regiment. Discussion made August 1, 2014 about pictures from May 9 with TELAR 231 and July 15 with TELAR 211 which is geotagged in VK to Novoselivka Persha, Donetsk Oblast, which is Zone B of the ATO. Note the number of missile crates in the pictures.
http://www.yaplakal.com/forum2/topic875128.html
https://imgur.com/a/yapZ7

Chaplain Michaylo Grisel was there until May 17, 2014:

 

 

Supposedly Stryi, Lviv Oblast, supposedly July 19, 2014 at 2:21 pm. 223rd Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Batteries 2 and 3. These are the same vehicles in the Fr. O. Mykhailo pictures.

Date taken of this video could also be March 28 2014.
TELAR 211 and 221, TEL 222, TELAR 230 and 231, TEL 232, all loaded with missiles.

The video has been located at taken in the middle of the town of Stryi.

A few weeks later on Google Earth, is this a BUK near the same area?
48°10’14.43″N, 37°35’13.72″E

Two videos posted on February 10, 2015 and showing a winter scene (trees with no leaves) 223rd Regiment, 4th Battalion
TEL 413 with 4 missiles, TELAR 422 without missiles (no, numbering not consistent with what I wrote before – there are a few oddities like this)

 

TELAR’s 431 and 421 without missiles

The last video was made in Stry

Comments Liane Theuer:

Andrew, you claim that it is Buk 211 in the O. Mykhailo picture.
But I think it is Buk 210 ! And it is NOT the same Buk as in the Stryi video.

Please compare the video with the picture.
In the video the number 211 is on the brown coloured part of the Buk.
In the O. Mykhailo picture the number (211 – as you claim, 210 – as I claim) is on the grey part of the Buk !!!

Andrew, are you sure that the 223rd Regiment has only one KUPOL ?

Remember the picture of O. Mykhailo inside a KUPOL. It was geotagged south of Debaltseve at the intersection E50 (M04) and E50 (M03).
You claimed that it is a wrong geotag, because Debaltseve was in rebels hand at this time.
But that seems not to be the whole truth.

On August 2/2014 the OSCE wrote :
„The SMM observed a new checkpoint positioned at Mius (14 km south-east of Debaltseve). At the Ukrainian checkpoint in Debaltseve (70 km north-east of Donetsk), the agreed ceasefire seemed to hold. About 10 kilometres south of Mius, the SMM was met by an “LPR” escort, and drove to the main wreckage site. The SMM saw several instances of artillery impacts at 7–10 kilometres southwest of the crash site between 13:03-14:19hrs.“
http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/122189

Two Ukrainian checkpoints deep inside a territory allegedly under full control of the rebels.
I could provide you with more evidence, that the area between Debaltseve and the crash site was not completely controlled by the rebels.
Ukrainian troops were also fighting in Shakhtersk and Horlivka.

So, to me it is not impossible that O. Mykhailo inside a KUPOL was geotagged south of Debaltseve.

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