Formally, the message released by the Ukrainian military intelligence service on Tuesday, July 11, does not contain any allegation. The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry (GUR) is content to recall a few facts, starting with the first: Vladislav Rjitsky, a captain in the Russian army, was killed the day before in a park in Krasnodar in southern Russia by multiple gunshots hit in the chest.
This point is hardly disputed. On the same day, Russian authorities themselves confirmed the officer’s death. Captain Rjitskiï, in charge of organizing mobilization operations for the Krasnodar Territory, in his previous roles was primarily the commander of the Krasnodar submarine, a name well known to the Ukrainian media, which credits this unit with being in charge of a calibre had rocket attack on the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia in July 2022. Result: 27 civilian deaths.
That the Ukrainian military intelligence service commented on this death is unusual in itself. Even more disturbingly, in its account of the facts, the GUR divulges certain details that were previously unknown, according to the BBC’s Russian-language service: “On July 10, the submarine driver was jogging in the park of the thirty-year-old victoire. Around 6 a.m., seven bullets were fired at him from a Makarov pistol. Rjitsky died at the scene. Due to the heavy rains, the park was deserted and no witness can give the details of what happened or identify the attacker. »
Jogging routes on Strava
For clarification, if this attacker is indeed on the run, Russian media broadcast CCTV images Monday night showing a man barely visible under his cap, portrayed as a murderer. Adding to the confusion, another branch of the Ukrainian army, the Strategic Communications Directorate, assures that the 42-year-old captain was killed “by his people” for allegedly refusing to continue his duty, which prompted him to do so , targets to shoot at Ukrainian civilians. GUR chief Kyrylo Budanov later denied his service’s involvement.
Read: Jogging app threatens military base security
A final point draws attention to itself. Vladislav Rjitskiï was a regular user of the Strava jogging app, which allows his performance to be recorded and compared, and was questioned back in 2018 for allowing American bases to be identified in the Middle East. The captain publicly published the details of his travels on foot or by bicycle almost daily. Several Russian sources point out that these routes were very often identical, suggesting that the organizers of his assassination may have used the request to find out his position on the morning of July 10.