Since Russia began its bombing campaign in Syria on September 30, 2016, the Russian Ministry of Defense has confirmed the deaths of at least 12 Russian soldiers, but independent journalists and bloggers have documented several more deaths and uncovered reports of dozens killed that the government does not acknowledge. .
Unlike the war in Ukraine, where the Kremlin pretends that only local separatists are killed in battle (even though hundreds of Russian soldiers are reportedly killed there), in Syria the deaths of military personnel are acknowledged and they are celebrated as heroes, awarded posthumous state awards .
At the same time, the Kremlin is trying to describe the circumstances of their deaths as having nothing to do with the conduct of hostilities themselves - since there are officially no Russian boots on Syrian soil. Instead, they are reported to have given their lives heroically defending humanitarian aid convoys, targeting Syrian air forces, or conducting “negotiations” with various factions at the Russian-established Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties (in Syria).
Here is a list of Russian soldiers whose deaths have been confirmed in Syria: one soldier reportedly committed suicide, nine died “while performing combat missions,” and two died in a helicopter crash.
1. Vadim Kostenko, contract soldier of the 960th (assault) air regiment; he reportedly committed suicide at Khmeimim Air Base on October 24, 2015. Officials say he was depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend, but his family, whose members interacted with him frequently, including on the day of his death, reject this explanation. An unnamed friend of Kostenko told investigative blogger Ruslan Leviev of the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) that smoke was visible at the air base the night Kostenko died and that up to nine military personnel may have been victims of the incident.
2. In November 2015, Fyodor Zhuravlev, special forces officer ( Russian forces special purpose), who served, according to the CIT group, in the Russian military intelligence(GRU) until the summer of 2014, in Syria was engaged in “targeting high-precision weapons of the strategic air force,” as reported by “a high-ranking source in the Ministry of Defense.” On March 17, 2016, President Vladimir Putin met with four widows, and Yulia Zhuravleva, Fyodor's widow, was among them.
3. On November 24, Oleg Peshkov, the pilot of a Su-24M shot down by a Turkish fighter, was killed after ejecting. Eight bullets were found in his body. His widow was also present at the meeting with Putin in March 2016.
4. On the same day, Alexander Pozynich, a naval paratrooper, died during an operation to rescue the co-pilot, who was on the plane with Peshkov.
5. In February 2016, military adviser Ivan Cheremisin was wounded during an attack on a Syrian training center and subsequently died. Video released by the Free Syrian Army at the time showed a group of men in military uniform in the western province of Latakia being attacked with a US-made TOW guided missile. Cheremisin was probably one of those killed in this attack.
6. March 17, 2017 (as in the text - approx. per.) Alexander Prokhorenko, a special forces lieutenant, was killed near the city of Palmyra. The Russian military admitted that one of the officers died during the assault on Palmyra, but initially did not name him. Kurdish fighters say they were negotiating with ISIS (organization banned in Russia - approx. per.) about the transfer of his body to the Russian military. His body was brought to Russia on April 29, 2016, and President Putin paid tribute to his memory.
According to reports, Prokhorenko was surrounded by militants at the moment when he reported the coordinates for air strikes near the city of Tadmor. According to the Ministry of Defense, he aimed the attack on himself in order to protect his comrades. However, a video distributed by ISIS, in which Prokhorenko's body and his equipment can be distinguished, suggests that his death was somewhat different.
7. In April, Andrei Okladnikov died in a helicopter crash said to have occurred in rebel-held territory near the city of Homs; The Russian military claims that the helicopter was not shot down.
8. Viktor Pankov died as a result of the same helicopter crash.
9. Anton Erygin, who was accompanying a transport convoy from the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties, was mortally wounded when the convoy came under fire from militants. He was awarded posthumously.
10. On June 15, Andrei Timoshenko was wounded in Homs while he was guarding a humanitarian convoy of the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria. He subsequently died from his injuries. According to reports, he tried to prevent a suicide bomber from breaking through in a car filled with explosives to the place where civilians were receiving humanitarian aid.
11. On June 16, Mikhail Shirokopoyas, a 35-year-old artilleryman from the village of Seryshevo, was killed. Reports of his death in Syria appeared in the local press, but were later deleted. National media later reported that the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed his death.
In addition to these 11 confirmed deaths, independent media and bloggers have identified a number of other Russian military personnel killed in Syria.
Vadim Tumakov, a contract soldier from Orenburg, served, according to available data, in the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and he died “under unclear circumstances.” Vasily Panchenkov, head of the press service of the internal troops, said Tumakov served as a cook and catered to officers of the Vityaz special forces unit from 2002 to 2004. Having served his term, he was demobilized, and his department does not have any other information about him.
In March, news site of St. Petersburg. This article, authored by former police officer and security consultant Denis Korotkov, completed a series of publications on the Fontanka website, which were devoted to mercenaries from the Slavic Corps, a private military company formed in 2013. Many fighters of the Slavic Corps later joined the private military company Wagner, whose name represents the call sign of a very colorful person who shared the ideology of the Third Reich and fought in Ukraine and Syria.
Context
Russian gambit in Syria
Stratfor 06/23/2016What to do with Russia in Syria?
Star gazete 06/17/2016How the war in Syria helped Russia
Apostrophe 06/14/2016Secret behind seven seals
The Washington Post 10/28/2015Members of the CIT team believe that he returned, apparently as a Special Operations officer or as a "negotiator" or even rehired military service. However, according to Korotkov, he became a member of the Wagner group in May 2014 and moved to Rostov, and then to the village of Veseloye, where the Wagner group has a training base where Russian fighters are trained to participate in military operations on Ukraine (this base was later transferred to the village of Molkino, Krasnodar Territory).
Chupov was killed on February 8, 2016, as evidenced by the inscription on his gravestone, however, according to some sources, he actually died in January. A certain source told Korotkov that the gray-haired old man wearing an officer's leather jacket, an FSB officer with the rank of no lower than major general came to Molkino to present medals, and some of them were awarded posthumously. Employees of the Fontanka website said that at first they did not believe this story, but then they managed to obtain documents confirming the award - posthumous award certificates signed by Putin.
Maxim Kolganov, 38, a Don Cossack from the village of Zhigulevskoye, was killed on February 3, 2016, “while performing a combat mission,” according to a local Cossack online forum. As the Fontanka website managed to find out, Kolganov was also an employee of the Wagner company, and he acted as a gunner-operator of an infantry fighting vehicle in the Latakia region. His army friends showed photographs of him taken in Latakia.
Another mercenary, codenamed "Hose" (real name unknown), believed to be among the Wagner fighters in a photo taken in Donetsk, Ukraine, was killed in mid-December 2015. He and seven other militants were returning from reconnaissance when an anti-personnel mine went off.
According to data received from Korotkov’s sources, of the 93 people sent to Syria, only a third returned alive and well in December 2015. However, the names of only three of them became known, and therefore it was difficult to document their deaths - and there were many of them in January and February during the battles for Palmyra - since even people who served in the same platoon did not always know each other's real names.
“Curiosity is not welcome here,” one source said.
Thomas Grove, a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal who interviewed Korotkov, noted that Korotkov is the only journalist writing about Wagner's private military company (or OSM, as it is formally called); and none of the members of Wagner's group agreed to talk to Grove. But he found three other sources who said "eight or nine" private contractors from the Wagner Group were killed in October 2015 when their base in western Syria came under mortar fire.
One of these sources, which was officially described as "close to Russian Ministry defense, said that the Wagner group consists of 1,000 people, and they have T-90 tanks and howitzers. Another source was Ivan Konovalov, director of a Moscow-based security think tank and a consultant to lawmakers trying to legalize private military mercenaries, who are currently in a legal gray area.
Konovalov and the official said that the slain mercenaries were originally members of the Slavic Corps, which used to be in Syria but was disbanded, but after some time they returned to Syria as part of the Wagner group.
In May 2015, Putin signed a decree making it a criminal offense to provide information about Russian military deaths abroad, and despite a legal challenge from independent lawyers and journalists, it was upheld by the Russian Constitutional Court. But even before that, journalists, bloggers and activists who tried to follow social media posts regarding the deaths of Russian soldiers in Ukraine began receiving threats or being beaten. Relatives of soldiers were warned that they could lose benefits if they spoke to the media. As a result of such threats, press reports about combat losses stopped appearing.
The Kremlin has been more open about the deaths of military personnel in Syria, but this is because the presence of the Russian air force is officially recognized, as well as the alleged bombing of ISIS positions, although in fact the strikes are carried out on those forces that are in opposition to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The death of military personnel and posthumous award ceremonies have even become part of the Kremlin’s patriotic propaganda fueling the war.
However, the opaque world of mercenaries cannot be officially recognized by the Russian military as long as the existence of this type of private contractors is illegal. And Russia will probably prefer that nothing in this regard changes, and this will be done in order to have as many opportunities for “plausible deniability” in Syria as possible.
InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.
According to preliminary information, the first military clash between the United States and Russia on the night of February 7-8 ended in a catastrophic and lightning-fast defeat for Moscow’s agents in the Syrian Republic. A massive defensive attack from American stealth fighters, helicopters, combat drones and artillery within a few minutes led to the complete elimination of the armored column of the Wagner PMC, which was trying to support the Assadite offensive on oil fields in Syria held by US allies. Newsader has collected a significant amount of information from open sources - the media, social networks and other resources - which provide details of a major battle between American troops against a Russian unit, which turned out to be the most serious casualties for the Russians in the entire Syrian campaign that Russia has been waging since September 2015 of the year. The information is based, among other things, on audio conversations between Russian mercenaries.
Russian mercenaries from the private military company Wagner were among the militants eliminated by the US Air Force on February 7 while trying to recapture oil fields from US allies. This was reported by the CBS television channel with reference to an official of the US Department of Defense, as well as numerous Russian sources. Preliminarily, we can talk about the first episode in Syria of the death of Russian soldiers from attacks by American forces. The death toll of Russians is estimated at over 200 people. Moreover, such information likely refutes Moscow’s statement that it did not participate in this operation of supporters of the Bashar al-Assad regime.
“Obviously, we are talking about the so-called “Wagner PMC”, which operates in mineral deposits in the Euphrates Valley,” the volunteer group Conflict Intelligence Team points out in its Telegram channel. - According to Pentagon sources, the real reason The clash began to control one of the oil fields in the area. In 2017, Fontanka reported on a contract between the Russian company Europolis, affiliated with Wagner PMC, and the Syrian authorities for the “liberation” and subsequent exploitation of Syria’s oil and gas resources.”
“Something serious happened in Syria this time.”
In turn, Igor Girkin, who commanded Russian militants in Ukraine in 2014, confirmed that the Wagner assault detachment indeed suffered heavy losses during the defensive operation carried out by the pro-American coalition.
“The 5th assault detachment, armored group and artillery unit were destroyed. Near the village of Hisham,” he wrote on his Vkontakte account.
“One was almost completely destroyed, the second was smashed into rubbish,” wrote Girkin, indicating that Russian losses amounted to about 100 people.
Meanwhile, a VK account called “TsSN FSB RF” announced “its condolences to all the relatives, friends and acquaintances of the personnel of the 5th assault detachment who died in battle on February 7, 2018, in the area of Syrian Deir ez-Zor.”
“As a result of an attack by coalition forces on a detachment’s convoy, *** people died, an unspecified number of three hundred are in the hospital in a state of varying severity,” it says. statement. - The detachment was attacked by artillery, helicopters that set up a “carousel”, as well as a “Spectrum” artillery battery; in some places the clashes with enemy infantry took place at close range. The detachment's artillery, as well as all armored vehicles, were burned. There simply were no forces and means to counter enemy aircraft. The battle lasted for 4 hours, as a result of which the 5th assault detachment no longer exists as a unit. Those who tried to hide somehow became prey for helicopters. The survivors managed to walk back to the positions of friendly forces.”
Military observer Roman Saponkov commented situation as follows:
“According to the Wagner PMC, in general, there is confirmation of an attack on the convoy. But it is not clear how many died. Do the math for yourself. They couldn't all die. In a normal battle, the ratio is 1 dead to 3 wounded. If there was no shooting battle, i.e. the battlefield was not controlled by the enemy, then this will be the ratio. If the battlefield is occupied by the enemy, it is clear that he will finish off/take prisoner the wounded. If you believe the figure of 100 dead, then there should be two to three times more wounded. Those. the column had to consist of at least 300 fighters. We must understand that there should have been no victims, no one who was caught. Those. The column already turns out to be two battalions. This is at least 10 trucks, plus staff vehicles (Lynx/Tiger), pickups, etc. It is impossible to cover such a car at once, the cars will fall out anyway, people will jump out of the cars and disperse. Of course, there is a desert there and it is impossible to hide. But if there were no consecutive air raids, with adjustments from the air (read, finishing), then such losses could not have occurred. If, nevertheless, finishing took place, then this is a different question...”, he writes.
In his opinion, Wagner’s real losses are ten times less than what is stated in other sources.
“Why did they attack the Americans is a big question. Possibly an amateur activity. They covered them with drones and artillery,” reports Saponkov.
American side version
At the same time, he warned that he did not have accurate information on this matter.
The head of the US Department of Defense emphasized that the United States does not consider the incident near the village of Hassham in the province of Deir ez-Zor as a consequence of a failure in the communication lines designed to prevent various incidents between the Russian and American Armed Forces in Syria. He expressed confidence that Moscow was not involved in the incident and was not in control of the situation.
“We have always known that in this extremely complex battle space there are elements over which, I would say, the Russians have no control,” the minister added.
According to information available to Washington, the Syrian forces, which the US-led coalition fired on February 7 near Khasham, were not under the command of the Russian Armed Forces.
“The fact is that someone decided to attack us, and the Russians said that it was not about them.<…>In my understanding, this is not a failure in the communication line aimed at preventing conflicts. I mean, you can’t ask Russia to prevent a conflict in a case where it doesn’t control something, it couldn’t be done,” said the head of the American military department.
He said the incident was puzzling because the Euphrates had been used in the area for “many months, if not years,” as a demarcation line between U.S. and opposition forces, as well as Russian and Syrian government forces, and there had never been a violation of the agreed border before. .
“This line of deconfliction was completely maintained, regardless of what you heard on the news or anywhere else. The Russians always responded to [American signals in this zone], we always responded. It has never [before] been violated as a deconflict line,” the minister assured.
“We're even coordinating ground operations [in the area] on each side,” Mattis said. According to the information he provided, Russian troops were not among the Syrian forces that came under coalition fire near Khasham. “The Russians told us at that time that their forces were not there,” said the head of the US Department of Defense.
Previously, American representatives have repeatedly emphasized that they will protect their own and allied troops in Syria from attack by anyone, and that their only goal in the Syrian Arab Republic is the destruction of ISIS. However, in Lately The United States has increasingly said it will not rush to withdraw its troops from the region and will help locals restore a political process disrupted by years of internal armed conflict between the Syrian government and the opposition.
*Extremist and terrorist organizations banned in the Russian Federation: Jehovah's Witnesses, National Bolshevik Party, Right Sector, Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), Islamic State (IS, ISIS, Daesh), Jabhat Fatah al-Sham", "Jabhat al-Nusra", "Al-Qaeda", "UNA-UNSO", "Taliban", "Majlis of the Crimean Tatar People", "Misanthropic Division", "Brotherhood" of Korchinsky, "Trident named after. Stepan Bandera", "Organization Ukrainian nationalists"(OUN)
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"Artillery division, assault detachment "Spring""
New data on Russian mercenaries killed in Syria has been announced
Komsomolskaya Pravda / Global Look Press
Politician, former State Duma deputy and retired military pilot Viktor Alksnis named new unofficial data on losses during the defeat of a Wagner PMC convoy in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor. Alksnis wrote about this on his page in Facebook.
According to the site's correspondent, according to his information, as a result of an airstrike by an international coalition led by the United States among Wagner PMCs, 217 people from the fifth assault detachment were killed, 10 people from the second assault detachment, 94 people from the Vesna assault detachment (aka " Carpathians," as well as 13 people from the artillery division. "Total 334 people,” Alksnis wrote in in social networks. “In addition, a large number of wounded have died and are dying from severe wounds in hospitals. The number of dead servicemen of the Special Operations Forces of the Russian Armed Forces who took part in this raid is unknown.”
Data on the circumstances of the military conflict that occurred on February 7 in the province of Deir ez-Zor vary. According to one version, supporters of Bashar al-Assad, among whom were fighters from the Wagner PMC, attacked the headquarters of the Syrian Democratic Forces, where American military advisers were located. According to a source from the Kommersant newspaper, the cause of the incident in the province of Deir ez-Zor was an attempt by local “big businessmen” to seize oil and gas fields controlled by US allies.
Coalition forces launched an airstrike against the attackers, killing an estimated 100 to 300 people. At the same time, rumors were spread on social networks about the death of “from 200 to 600 fighters” of Wagner PMC near Deir ez-Zor. On February 15, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that five people had died as a result of an airstrike in Syria.
According to Reuters, 100 soldiers hired by the “Kremlin-linked Russian private military company” Wagner PMC were killed, and approximately 200 more were injured.
The Ministry of Defense denied the presence of Russian troops in the attack area and added that coalition forces acted in self-defense. At the same time, Bloomberg, citing two sources, reported that the injured Russian mercenaries were taken to hospitals of the Russian Ministry of Defense in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Reuters writes that the wounded in Syria were sent to four Russian military hospitals. One of the military resuscitators working with the wounded in Deir ez-Zor said that as of the evening of February 10, there were more than 50 such patients in Russian hospitals, 30% of them had serious injuries. At least three flights with wounded, according to his information, arrived from Syria to Moscow between February 9 and 12.
On February 7, the US-led anti-terrorist coalition launched strikes against pro-government forces in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor. Reports soon began to emerge that Russian mercenaries were among the strike's many casualties. How many of them died? Why are they fighting in Syria? And why this is a blow for Russia in any case - in the material TUT.BY.
Who attacked whom and why?
The clash took place on the banks of the Euphrates River, in the area gas fields. A few kilometers north of this zone there is a large gas processing plant that receives raw materials from the nearby At-Tabiya field, the largest in all of Syria - before the start of the war, 13 million cubic meters were extracted from it natural gas in a day. At the end of September 2017, the plant was liberated from Islamic State militants by Kurdish forces from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with the support of a US-led military coalition.
The Kurds were attacked not by the Syrian army, but by pro-government tribal formations - allies of Damascus from among the local clans. The purpose of the raid was to seize a gas processing plant in order to bring it under the control of the Syrian government. Russian mercenaries from the private military company (PMC) Wagner also took part in the raid.
The head of the US Air Force Central Command, Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigan, gave a press conference at the Pentagon on February 13, during which he outlined in detail the American version of what happened that day.
Jeffrey Harrigan. Photo: defense.gov
According to the general, on the evening of February 7, the international coalition led by the United States defended itself, and American military advisers helped Syrian rebels fight off “an unprovoked and coordinated attack on their positions from across the Euphrates River.” The general said that before the attack the enemy carried out artillery preparations, which included tanks, mortars, rocket and cannon artillery. Under the cover of this shelling, a force of approximately a battalion moved into position.
The coalition launched a strike against the attackers that included F-15E fighters, MQ-9 drones, B-52 strategic bombers, AC-130 heavy attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.
The general described the air strikes as targeted and said that several artillery systems and tanks were destroyed as a result. After this, the attackers retreated.
The command of the US-led international coalition estimates the losses of the attackers at 100 people (with 300-500 participants in the attack). At the same time, Harrigan noted that he did not know who was part of the attacking group and whether there were Russian citizens there.
How many Russian mercenaries died in Syria?
Data on how many Russian mercenaries there were in the clash at Deir ez-Zor vary. The numbers given range from 5 to 644 dead.
5 dead
The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that reports “about the death of tens and hundreds Russian citizens“This is classic disinformation.”
Maria Zakharova. Photo: Reuters
“According to preliminary data, as a result of the armed clash, the causes of which are now being clarified, we can talk about the death of 5 people, presumably Russian citizens. There are also victims, but all this requires verification, in particular, and first of all, of citizenship - whether they are all citizens of Russia or other countries. Once again I would like to emphasize that we are not talking about Russian military personnel,” she said official representative Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.
14 dead
This figure was announced to Pravda.Ru by Andrey Troshev, whom the media calls one of the leaders of the Wagner PMC. The publication claims that he is also the chairman of the League of Veterans of Military Conflicts. When asked about the number Russian volunteers, killed in Syria, Troshev replied that in fact their number was 14 people.
“On your forehead, [... human reproductive organ], write to yourself: 14 volunteers died in Syria. [...Tired] of you all chewing snot together and telling fairy tales in your articles, all together you are winding snot into the mill of your enemies... And as for your speculations there, what you write, and [... abnormal] investigations - no one abandoned anyone . If the Motherland had abandoned us, we would have been gone a long time ago, and by the way, you too,” Troshev said in a telephone conversation.
80−100 dead
Such data is provided by Reuters citing sources in the article “Russia lost 300 people killed and wounded in battle in Syria.”
“A Russian military doctor said about 100 people were killed, and a source who knows several fighters said the number of casualties exceeded 80,” the article says.
Agency employees also talked with the ataman of the Khovrino Cossack society, Evgeny Shabaev, who said that on February 14 he visited friends wounded in Syria at the Central Military Hospital of the Ministry of Defense in Khimki. According to him, the wounded told him that the two units of Russian private military specialists who took part in the battle near Deir ez-Zor numbered 550 people. Of this number, about 200 people were not killed or injured.
200 dead
This figure was announced to The New York Times by Russian businessman Alexander Ionov, who works in Syria in the security field. Citing conversations with colleagues in several private military organizations, he said he could estimate losses at “more than 200 Russians.”
Ionov noted that not all of those killed were Russians: some of the mercenaries came from other countries of the former USSR.
Bloomberg also provides data on 200 deaths, citing “one American official and three Russians familiar with this issue,” including the same businessman Alexander Ionov.
217 dead
The director of another private intelligence company, AIM, Alexey Sobolev, in an interview with the Dozhd TV channel, reported 217 dead Russian mercenaries. He also clarified that another 10-15 people subsequently died in hospitals.
200−250 dead
Radio Liberty received this data on February 16 from one of the Wagner PMC mercenaries, who, according to him, was a participant in the battle on February 7, moreover, commanded one of the units.
“200-250 killed, about the same number wounded,” he said.
600 - 644 dead
Such a number of dead named former minister defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Igor Girkin (Strelkov). According to him, he receives different information from Syria about the number of dead - “over 600 (644, to be more precise - and that’s just those killed).”
“I don’t quite understand where such losses come from, because the entire defeated column numbered slightly more than 500 people. But we also cannot exclude the possibility of such losses,” Strelkov doubts the reliability of this data.
About 600 dead tells and “coordinator of volunteers in Donbass” Mikhail Polynkov.
“I went to the hospital (according to media reports, there are wounded mercenaries in at least three Russian military hospitals - TUT.BY note) and visited one of the survivors in that meat grinder near Khishim. What can I say, in short? The numbers about 600 two hundredths are not a myth. There were three assault detachments with an average of 300 people from Russians and Donetsk residents,” he said.
Mercenaries from Wagner PMC: who are they, what are they doing in Syria and how much do they earn?
The Wagner Private Military Company or the Wagner Group (Wagner PMC) is an unofficial military organization that is not part of the regular armed forces of Russia and does not have any legal status: in Russia, as in Belarus, mercenaries are illegal.
The military units of Wagner PMC numbered - at different times and according to various sources - from 1,350 to 2,500 people. People who have military experience join PMCs - leavers and former contract soldiers.
Mercenaries from this private military company participated in the armed conflict in Donbass.
“What did the Wagner group do in the east of Ukraine: the downing of an Il-76 with Ukrainian paratroopers, when 49 military personnel were killed, the storming of the Luhansk airport and participation in the assaults of Debaltsevo and other populated areas,” said the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasily Gritsak in October 2017 .
According to the Fontanka publication, which pays considerable attention to the Wagner PMC and has conducted many investigations on this topic, since the fall of 2015, mercenaries PMC Wagner are fighting in Syria on the side of forces supporting Assad. The main tasks of mercenaries are the protection and defense of oil-bearing areas, and, if possible, the advancement and seizure of territory. The publication also reported that there is an agreement between Syrian government organizations and the Russian Euro Policy LLC, which is backed by people from the structures of billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin (he is more often referred to in the media as “Putin’s cook”). Euro Policy LLC undertook to liberate and protect oil fields and factories for reimbursement of the costs of military operations plus a quarter of the oil and gas produced.
It is not known for certain how much mercenaries earn in Syria.
In January 2017, journalists from the Investigation Management Center, citing sources, said that during training in Russia, a newcomer’s salary was 80 thousand Russian rubles per month (about 1.4 thousand dollars - approx. TUT.BY). On a business trip, a private receives 240 thousand ($4.2 thousand) and bonuses for successfully completed tasks. Komvzvoda - up to half a million rubles (8.8 thousand dollars). Komrota - another 200-300 thousand more (more than 12 thousand dollars). For injury, compensation up to two million ($35 thousand). If they kill, the relatives will receive three million (more than 53 thousand dollars).”
The founder of the activist group Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) Ruslan Leviev, in an interview with Kommersant, again citing sources, said that during the training period, training during the initial deployment to Syria the salary is 50-80 thousand Russian rubles (from 880 to 1400 dollars - approx. TUT.BY).
“If you have any special skills, for example, you are a sniper or a tank commander, the average salary is 100-120 thousand (1.7 - 2.1 thousand dollars). For participation in active hostilities, the reward reaches 150-200 thousand rubles (2.6 - 3.5 thousand dollars) or more if it is some kind of major battle, for example, the capture of Palmyra, and up to 300 thousand (5.3 thousand dollars),” Leviev said.
The private military company is led by a reserve lieutenant colonel, who previously served as commander of the 700th separate special forces detachment in the 2nd special forces brigade in the Pskov region, Dmitry Utkin (call sign Wagner). His deputy is a retired police colonel from the SOBR of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the North-West, a former artillery paratrooper, veteran of Afghanistan and Chechnya Andrei Troshev (call sign Sedoy).
From left to right: Andrey Bogatov (Tramp), Andrey Troshev (Sedoy), Vladimir Putin, Alexander Kuznetsov (Ratibor), Dmitry Utkin (Wagner).
In 2016, the leaders of Wagner PMC attended a reception with Vladimir Putin - photo from the meeting
The United States of America carried out another bombing campaign in Syria, although this time its target was pro-government forces. Data on the identity of the victims and their number vary. American media, citing an official familiar with the situation, report hundreds of dead Syrian Arab Army soldiers. However, then a representative of the US State Department Heather Nauert When asked by a journalist about the large number of civilian deaths, she stated that she could not clarify who exactly was killed as a result of this bombing. The Russian side reports only the wounded of local military and civilians.
But, of course, the main misunderstanding between Russia and the United States is not in numbers. Russian officials immediately criticized this move by coalition forces. So the representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vasily Nebenzya called the American attack a crime. But the Americans have a kind of excuse. If their statements are to be believed, Russia was informed about the impending operation in advance. They say this was done immediately after it became clear to them that the Kurdish positions were attacked by pro-government troops. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not confirm this information.
The situation is very dangerous. Washington once again allowed itself to demonstrate disrespect towards Moscow and Damascus, which are jointly responsible for the security of the areas under fire. In addition, the situation becomes even more confusing due to unconfirmed reports of Russians killed as a result of this aggression. Wanting to understand this story, we turned to military experts. Our first interlocutor was Russian military expert Alexey Leonkov.
“Before this incident, we had a clear line of communication between the Coalition and Russia. It included three areas: general issues, coordination of ground operations, coordination of air operations. This is necessary in order to prevent all sorts of incidents between the Russian Aerospace Forces and units of the US Army and their allies. But now there was no communication along this line. Now the Americans say that before this attack they notified our side, mentioning that on the eve of the bombing of Shayrat (the attack on the Syrian al-Shayrat airbase was carried out by the Americans on April 7, 2017 - author) the same thing happened. But the Russian Ministry of Defense does not confirm this data. Most likely, no information was really received.
“SP”: Why did the United States even take such measures?
“The fact is that in the area of the eastern coast of the Euphrates in the province of Deir ez-Zor there are their military advisers who help the Democratic Forces. The Americans reported that they were under attack by the Syrian Arab Army. But there is a nuance here. Last fall, the Russian side asked the Americans for accurate information about the presence of their instructors in the area of the eastern coast of the Euphrates. This was necessary in order to prevent their accidental death. The US did not provide any exact coordinates. Instead, they simply designated an area where advisors could be. It turned out to be a huge area that starts near Afrin and ends near Abu Kemal. Thus, they simply designated the zone of their interests - Russia should not interfere with this territory. It is clear that our military took such data negatively - there were many disputes between the Russian Federation and the United States, but the whole point is that the Americans are behaving impudently. Now they are trying to prove that they may have lost the battle in Syria, but they did not lose the war. Therefore, there will be many provocations here to weaken Russia’s position. What happened to our plane in Idlib was a provocation aimed at setting Russia at odds with Turkey (the plane was shot down in an area partially controlled by pro-Turkish forces - author). And in Deir ez-Zor, Russian-Iranian and Russian-Syrian relations have already become the target. The Americans reported that Russia was aware, and everyone has questions about why it did not inform the Iranians and Syrians who were in the shelling zone.
“SP”: — Some sources report about Russians killed as a result of the Coalition attack. Is it possible?
“Our military advisers are in this area all the time. Once, as a result of terrorist shelling, even Russian general(talking about Lieutenant General Valeria Asapova- author). Now the same situation could happen, but there is no data confirming the information, so it is impossible to say for sure. And I would not comment on the information about mercenaries, because it often turns out to be untrue.
Another military expert Keram Yildirim(Turkey) believes that the death of Russian citizens as a result of this incident took place. Because it's being reported different sources, in no way connected with each other and not related to any one side of the conflict.
— This provocation is directed against Russia. The United States wants to undermine its authority among all local forces and declare itself as the rightful masters of the situation in Syria. This means that this could happen many times in the future. If volunteers from Russia or military personnel died, then the situation is even worse. Russia needs to take urgent measures to counter American provocations or respond in a similar way by attacking the positions of the People's Self-Defense Units. There are enough reasons for this.
