The first Russian crossing-the-border shelling into Ukraine was on or before July 6th 2014

Russia has been massively shelling Ukraine from Russian territory in 2014. This map has recorded about most of them.

Up till now the first crossing-the-border attack was on Zelenopillya on July 11th
The first recorded cross-border attack was from Gukovo on July 16th.

Now a video is discovered that shows there was already a crossing-the-border attack at least as early as July 6th:



At the time of publishing this blog, it has only 31 views. It has the title 'Бомбление Бирюкове' which auto-translates as 'Bomblenie Biryukova' but probably means something like 'bombardment Biryukova'.

Rockets or shells can be heard flying overhead, with the cameraman trying to follow their path, followed by impacts.
Upload date is July 6th.



In the description it even says June 22nd.
Although the video gives too little clues to geolocate it with certainty, it is a typical 'citizens video' on a personal youtube account. And with 31 views it can hardly be a propaganda video. Therefore it seems likely the video was recorded from Biryukova.

When we check the mentioned map near Biryukova, we see that there is only one trajectory going over that village.


Double checking these trajectories, we find this:



There are three Ukrainian camps in the area. The impacts at these camps have directions indicated by the yellow lines.
#1 was mainly hit by the Gukovo-shellings. #3 was coming from the south. #2 has impacts from three directions, most of those coming from the two southern ones. These two southern ones are close enough to Biryukove to have been filmed as 'flying overhead'.

This video shows that camp #2 was destroyed by July 28th. But since it has impacts from multiple directions it is very well possible that it had been shelled on an earlier date (on or before July 6th) too.

When we trace the yellow lines back to find a firing location, we can see that the most southern one leads to this position:



(At least) Three burn marks from GRAD rocket launches can be seen in two directions.

The other single direction leads to a couple of impacts at camp #1. That is another clue that this shelling had been done independent from the bigger shellings that destroyed the camps. It seems like these might have been some 'probing' attempts, to see what the response would be.

The red lines in the image show tracks that clearly cross the border.

The earliest satellite image (after 2013) dates from 8-8-2014. So this does not help to exactly determine the date of the attack.


Conclusion
The video seems to be very authentic. It makes sense that the Russians would first try out cross-border shelling before massively doing this, in order to see in what way Ukraine would respond. Without a significant answer to this provocation, they moved on and so we got the Zelenopillya-attack a little bit later.
Even though a date of June 22nd seems early, it must be clear that this attack was earlier than the others.

Google Earth shows Russians crossed border to attack Ukrainian camp at Zelenopole

On July 16th I published a blog that showed and proved how Russian GRAD MLRS attacked Ukraine across the border.

Earlier on July 11th I had already written about Zelenopole. A Ukrainian camp had totally been destroyed there. We suspected this was done from Russian territory:



But there was never conclusive evidence this was indeed the case.

Now Google Earth has updated satellite images on this location. And it shows that it had EXACTLY happened as suspected!

Here is the layout of the camp:

The dark blue area is where the concentration of vehicles is and what it destroyed. The other areas are tents in the trees, fire positions and dug-in positions.

This is how it looks like on the Russian border:

It may not be obvious at once, but comparison with a very old image (the only available) may help:

These are the tracks we see:

When we zoom in, we can clearly see the tracks that are crossing the border:

The tracks lead to two areas in the field with GRAD launch burn patterns:

The upper one in this image is pointing up (red arrows). The lower ones are less clear, but still a direction can be determined. They point to bottom left in the image (red lines). Fourteen! firing positions can be seen.

Next thing we do is draw a line from this location, into the direction it is pointing and extend that line:

On a larger scale that looks like this:

It is directed EXACTLY at the area that was hit and destroyed.

This was before the attack:

This was after the atack:

Conclusion

It is proven now how Russia attacked the Ukrainian camp near Zelenopole . They crossed the border with 14 BM-21 GRAD MLRS and fired devastating loads of rockets on the unsuspecting Ukrainians. Back then the Russians said it was 'the terrorist who did it'. Or 'the rebels'.

This is now officially the FIRST recorded cross border attack from Russia into Ukraine.


UPDATE
This is a Google Earth video showing the attack:




Here is another very similar incident Google Earth reveals now:

Red arrows = where tracks can be seen crossing the border
Yellow area = GRAD burn marks
Red line = direction the burn marks are pointing to

This is how the tracks crossing the border are going:

On a large scale we can see the direction is towards a KNOWN destroyed Ukrainian camp:

This is the camp:

The impact directions of many craters correspond with the firing direction (red line), but not all. It means this camp has been attacked from another direction too.

Drama near Zelenopole: entire Ukrainian camp destroyed

Reports are out that a Ukrainian camp near Zelenopole (or Zelenopillya) has been attacked by GRADs at 5:00 am in the morning and was completely destroyed.

InfoResist writes about it here. A certain Vladimir Parasyuk writes on his facebook page that there are 30 killed and 100 wounded:

"Just reported very bad news. Today at 5:00 am in s.Zelenopole, Lugansk region. Russian militants from the installation "Grad" fired our guys with 24 motorized brigade (Yavorovschina, Lviv region). A large number of wounded and killed. No connection, all burned. Reinforcements coming. About this horror I was informed by my brother, who is now there. According to unofficial data, the number of our guys killed 30 and wounded more than 100."

Immediately Russian news site Lenta.ru published a report where Strelkov confirmed this. "Yes, they were all trashed."

Later the official number is turned down to 19 soldiers and 4 border guards killed.
But some insist it is more:

The officer of 24th motorized brigade cnfrms @ 4:40 GRAD shelling started, over 50 KIA, over 100 WIA. All ammo hit. https://t.co/9Riymfh1Le
— lennutrajektoor (@lennutrajektoor) July 11, 2014

This is where Zelenopole is:

On a larger scale from MilitaryMaps:

@PeterGrnlund1 It's confirmed by source on ground. Official ATO is mum. KIA varies btwn 30-50 but the sources says 50, 150 WIA @djp3tros
— lennutrajektoor (@lennutrajektoor) July 11, 2014

This facebook-page reports about it. It's from Kostyantyn Polyakov, who says it's the 79th brigade.
Here is the original facebook-page from Vladimir Parasyuk. He says it concerns the 24th motorized Brigade (Yavorivshchyna, Lviv region), which contradicts the '79th brigade'.
This source says it concerns BOTH 24th and 79th. And it says adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs Zorian Shkiryak confirms that at least 25 have been killed.

This is a Ukrainian agency reporting about it and ATO confirms what happened, but cannot say anything about the number of casualies. Parasyuk is called 'an activist'.

Probably this is a photo when the camp was still intact:

This is a photo of the destruction (click to enlarge):

About 20 destroyed vehicles can be counted.
This camp is completely in the open. There is NO COVER at all? Who decided to park here?

A military expert told me that one night camps indeed may want to camp in circle in open field to have good view and line of fire in all directions. Yet, it is deadly for GRAD-attacks. So a drastic change of tactics is needed here.

@_hedder @lennutrajektoor @djp3tros There's more to the story , russians hide in urban areas , UA forces avoid exposing civilians to risks .
— Łukasz Łowiński (@lukaslowinski) July 11, 2014

Other photos:

Destruction of 1st brigade 79th regiment:

1st brigade 79th regiment camp was scouted by UAVs & shelled after, which all came fr #RUS side. This is 1st incident DIRECTLY by #RUS army.
— lennutrajektoor (@lennutrajektoor) July 11, 2014

If this true... I have no words right now.

@MiddleEast_BRK They fired it from #RUS territory first and THEN invaded.
— Андрій (@AndrijUKR) July 11, 2014

Right now the GRAD incident is investigated as possible GRAD shelling inside #Luhansk region w reconnaissance done w long range UAV drone.
— lennutrajektoor (@lennutrajektoor) July 11, 2014

Zelenopole and its surroundings are definitely within the 20 km range of a normal GRAD:

So it could very well be possible that a unit fired on the camp just before or after crossing the border.

To avoid villages, this would have been the best spot to launch this attack:

Reddish area = within 20km range
Yellow = villages
Red circle = area around Zelenopole where convoy was camping.
Red arrow = great spot to launch a GRAD attack

There is even a road/path that leads to there:

Another possibility might be like this:

One consideration for deep concern is this: IF (pro)Russian units attack just after crossing the border AND they immediately retreat to Russian soil again... Ukraine is going to be provoked to attack Russia...

So let's wait and see if any information comes that shows from which direction was fired...

@djp3tros Considering that Kremlin hasn't prevented them crossing the border, then surely it must be an official hostile action by the #Rus
— Vincent Verne (@Wilkzlasu) July 11, 2014

If this was a game it would be called 'cheating'... to attack from a 'safe zone' and retreat back there. But it is a deadly attack and there are hardly words to describe it. It is a cowardly act...

Just in: The commander of 24th motorized brigade who got under GRAD attack on July 11 is suspended. #Ukraine #ATO
— lennutrajektoor (@lennutrajektoor) July 11, 2014

If you have additional information, please let me know.