Aric TolerVerified account

@AricToler

Eastern Europe/Eurasia lead researcher and trainer at

Kansas City, MO
bellingcat.com/author/arictol…
Joined May 2014
2,900 Photos and videos Photos and videos

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  1. 5 minutes ago

    (Personally: I am leaning towards this being a recycled photo, taken from Telegram or Whatsapp and previous taken in a different incident/country. The source is not at all trustworthy)

    2 retweets 17 likes
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  2. 8 minutes ago

    Until we hear more from on where he got the photo from, best chance to verify the photo is through the concrete irrigation barriers, and (outside chance) this piece of trash. I guess a plastic food container? Can probably figure out the brand from the design.

    5 replies 9 retweets 14 likes
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  3. 38 minutes ago

    In particular, gathered a ton of photos/videos back in 2015 of used Tor-M missiles in eastern Ukraine, without any matches to this one (though they obviously look very similar)

    4 replies 3 retweets 8 likes
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  4. 40 minutes ago

    For what it's worth, I've tried a ton of ways to reverse search images to find this same photo but no luck so far. It could be geolocated (theoretically) from the details in the photo, or seen in other imagery / videos (e.g. drone footage of the crash site?)

    4 replies 9 retweets 27 likes
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  5. 48 minutes ago

    Not sure where Ashkan got the photo from, but this is the patient zero for the Twitter shares. An old tweet from (found by ) shows a similar fragment from a missile used in 2015 in Donetsk. Again, no clue where orig pic came from.

    Такой подарочек прилетел на ДМЗ от рашистов вечером 05/10/15
    3 replies 20 retweets 37 likes
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  6. 51 minutes ago

    This is the original source of the photo being passed around, it was allegedly found near the PS752 flight. Speculation that it's a Tor-M (Russian air defense system used by Iran )

    این یک قطعه پیدا شده در محل سقوط هواپیمای…
    8 replies 68 retweets 76 likes
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  7. 13 hours ago

    (This photo has been confirmed as real, you can ignore all of the boring verification/geolocation talk below unless you want to dig around some yourself)

    1 reply 4 retweets 12 likes
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  8. 13 hours ago

    Gut-wrenching to see the anticipated arrival on Flightaware, with an imaginary trajectory about to 'arrive' in Boryspil.

    2 replies 7 retweets 19 likes
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  9. 13 hours ago

    (Obviously, it's very possible there was just a real technical error, either from some bizarre indirect factor related to last night's events or a cosmic coincidence. But it's hard to wrap my mind around this being a completely random technical issue for a new Boeing plane)

    6 replies 6 retweets 42 likes
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  10. 13 hours ago

    If (a very, very big if) Iran did shoot down this plane on accident, hopefully they quickly take responsibility and not drag this out. Both Russia (MH17) and America (655) have had some issues with that, and especially with MH17, it's a serious emotional toll on victims' families

    2 replies 13 retweets 37 likes
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  11. 14 hours ago

    More:

    اخبار غیر رسمی از محل حادثه سقوط: همه مسافران پرواز شماره PS752 خطوط هوایی بین المللی اوکراین، جان باختند.
    3 replies 1 retweet 6 likes
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  12. 14 hours ago

    New crash photos showing it actually in town -- likely in eastern/southeastern Parand (see 35.485220, 50.956283 -ish)

    Updated photos of air crash flight
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    4 replies 10 retweets 17 likes
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  13. 14 hours ago

    This one seems to fit much more nicely with the color and with nearby paths that could match the camera position

    Replying to @AricToler
    There is another blue roof building, closer to where the flight path ends 35.486201, 50.952178
    1 reply 2 retweets 10 likes
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  14. 14 hours ago

    Biggest issue is trying to figure out a path/road that the photo was taken from with this perspective of the roof, any ideas?

    3 replies 2 retweets 10 likes
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  15. 14 hours ago

    A few people have sent me this spot -- looks promising

    1 reply 1 retweet 7 likes
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  16. 14 hours ago

    (Unrelated, but neat snap here of a flight during takeoff with the motion captured)

    1 reply 2 retweets 15 likes
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  17. 14 hours ago

    This industrial park is the most promising on first glance, but a total mess to figure out the right one

    2 replies 1 retweet 7 likes
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  18. 14 hours ago

    No clue on the date of that Gmaps layer, so check Google Earth as well for what may be a newer image.

    1 reply 2 retweets 9 likes
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  19. 14 hours ago

    If you want to look, zoom and scour

    1 reply 4 retweets 12 likes
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  20. 14 hours ago

    Unconfirmed photo of the crash site outside of Tehran. Could geolocate it to confirm, especially with the blue-roofed building. Last ping was in vicinity of 35.501609, 50.925865 headed northwest, so search around that radius. Direct link to orig resolution

    11 replies 79 retweets 115 likes
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  21. Retweeted
    15 hours ago

    This appears to be a video of the Ukranian passenger airplane that crashed just outside of Tehran International. This doesn't look good.

    55 replies 874 retweets 865 likes
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  22. 15 hours ago

    "Technical issues" Yeeeeeah. Well, it happened after takeoff (Tehran --> Kyiv)

    3 replies 5 retweets 15 likes
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  23. 15 hours ago

    Ukraine Air 752 (PS752)

    Reports: plane with 180 passengers aboard crashes near 's Imam Khomeini Airport due to technical issues
    9 replies 38 retweets 50 likes
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  24. Retweeted
    22 Jan 2019

    President Trump lies with a passion — it’s a pathology, writes . But here’s an uncomfortable truth: Donald Trump probably represents the best hope that we’ve had since 9/11 to actually end some of these forever wars.

    Trump Is a Liar — but He May Be Our Best Hope to End U.S. Forever Wars
    The mere possibility of ending some of these forever wars is worth our time and effort even if Donald Trump is the president.
    585 replies 332 retweets 724 likes
  25. 19 hours ago

    Sorry, I only trust people who use Yahoo Answers, like Bill Mitchell

    2 replies 23 likes
  26. 19 hours ago

    Some happy news instead of Iran horror: in honor of Duncan Hunter resigning from Congress today, the best and only thing to read about him, via --

    4 retweets 21 likes
  27. 19 hours ago

    An interesting trend that jumps out here is how important the medium of investigation is in Russia, for a million different reasons that include the rise in citizen activism, low cost of digital publishing, and necessity from carousel of media outlets being hijacked/seized.

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  28. 19 hours ago

    Really neat piece from surveying the evolution of Russian investigative journalism over the last decade, from some Livejournal blogger named Navalny, to (not to brag) / digital investigations, to new Telegram channels

    1 reply 10 retweets 29 likes
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  29. 24 hours ago

    Really interesting piece here on Yandex's facial recognition capabilities. I also added an extra update to my now dreadfully out-of-date SearchFace (which morphed into FindClone) guide, if you're curious:

    New blog post about how Yandex works now as facial recognition of anyone with a photo on the web. It's kind of creepy and kind of cool. This post is an elaboration of 's recent…
    1 reply 11 retweets 31 likes
  30. Retweeted
    Jan 7

    Our first professional training at with the led by and brings back 's and now 's to train on Twitter and verification.

    15 retweets 41 likes
  31. Retweeted
    Jan 7

    11. This account has been commenting on the situation in Iran and getting a lot of engagement. But last year reported that it's a fake persona:

    3 replies 17 retweets 49 likes
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  32. Retweeted
    Jan 6

    There is no withdrawal from Iraq, just told me. The Coalition will release a statement soon.

    “[W]e will conduct these operations during hours of darkness to help alleviate any perception that we may be bringing more Coalition Forces into the [International Zone of Baghdad].”
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    3 replies 11 retweets 18 likes
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  33. Retweeted
    Jan 6

    Wow. posts satellite imagery of Qassem Soleimani funeral procession in Tehran. That's a lot of people.

    5 replies 70 retweets 111 likes
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  34. Retweeted
    Jan 6

    I'm hardly one to criticize, but would any other country issue a formal statement from a diplomat with such a poor command of the language as this guy's Russian?

    1:14
    Посол США в РК У. Мозер: «США не хотят войны.
    13 replies 14 retweets 73 likes
  35. Jan 5

    This is obviously really stupid and fake, but the best part of the bird-brain real estate agent that faked it is that she added "" to a tweet supposedly sent on a Saturday (Also, it's dated to Jan 4, 2019 instead of 2020)

    She rapidly deleted this tweet.
    2 replies 26 retweets 125 likes
  36. Retweeted
    Jan 4

    Bellingcat literally helped to identify a Saudi influence campaign which was then shut down by Facebook.

    4 replies 69 retweets 223 likes
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  37. Jan 4

    На русском языке - Полная версия доклада -

    3 replies 183 retweets 187 likes
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  38. Jan 4

    tl;dr: -Over 100 unique events of artillery fire from Russia to Ukraine in summer 2014 -Thousands of artillery projectiles and craters -Happened in both Luhansk & Donetsk oblasts -Bulk of fire was focused on Sector D (eastern Donetsk / southern Luhansk)

    1 reply 58 retweets 81 likes
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  39. Jan 4

    You can view information from a really cool, interactive map showing all of the data used in the report here. Each artillery impact (visible in historical satellite imagery) and origin (e.g. Grad installations by Russian army camps) is shown.

    3 replies 77 retweets 108 likes
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  40. Jan 4

    You can read the full ("only" 45 pages) PDF report here, detailing the methodology of identifying and analyzing artillery attacks via craters left behind on satellite imagery, along with determining the origin point (usually in Russia) for the artillery.

    1 reply 38 retweets 84 likes
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