"Not a hundred, not ten." What will result in the death of the Russians from the US strike in Syria? What is known about the Russians killed and wounded in Syria: new data
Russia is preparing Donbass to return to Ukraine The Kremlin is curtailing another project in the Donbass. This can be seen in the information field, and in the economic, social, and even political. That is, everyone in ORDLO already knows that by the beginning of next year the "republics" will cease to exist and become part of Ukraine, having received a different name and status. Not everyone likes this, not everyone supports it, but now we are not talking about them, but about the fact that the Kremlin is curtailing the LDNR project. And everything would be fine, and one could rejoice if the curtailment of one project did not mean the beginning of the next, Olena Stepova writes for the Opposite. By studying the Kremlin's narratives, one can predict what awaits all of us. To make it clear to the reader what is at stake, I will start from the very beginning. Since 2014. Who follows the war, does not let it out of his head and heart, he, of course, does not need such lengthy excursions. But, since my posts are scattered across the information field - which shows that the information is still needed, and I still take my place on this sector of the front - I have to return the reader to the roots so that he sees the entire system of manipulation and keeps information on a short leash. 2014-2015 passed in ORDLO under the sign of "Novorossia". With her, with this narrative, the war began. Donbass "rose" not only to defend itself against the "Kyiv junta attacking it", but also to become an independent political unit - the country of "Novorossia". On the avatars of many Donbass was this "new Russia". They went to battle for her. Its "history" was studied in schools and "universities" of the "L-DPR". The Russians died for "Novorossiya", and many monuments of the Ikhtamnets scattered throughout the Russian Federation contain just such an interpretation of the war - "died for the glory of Novorossiya." This narrative was heavily introduced into conversational use and, most importantly in information wars, it began to be used by the media. The project "Novorossiya" was shown to the residents of Donbass as a project of a historically developed ancient territory, the design of which into a new political territorial unit would be logical. Just as easily, following from this simulacrum, others appeared - "the peoples of Donbass", "the culture of Donbass". Although, to be logical, the Novorossiya project also did not appear from scratch, but became a logical continuation of the Donbass simulacrum. Well, there is no such country, territory, region, you know, no. There are Lugansk and Donetsk regions. There is the Donetsk coal basin. Regions are administrative divisions. The coal basin is a geological unit. There is a toponym "Donbass" - this is an abbreviation for "Donetsk coal basin". No more. However, the long-term use of the word-toponym "Donbass" to designate the territory gave its inhabitants the right to think that "Donbass" is some kind of administrative unit. Often in the peaceful part of Ukraine, here in Central Ukraine, I hear "why Poroshenko attacked the entire Donbass." That is, in the minds of many generations, the picture "Donbass is an administrative unit, country, territory" has formed, deleting the Lugansk and Donetsk regions from memory. And when you say that "Donbass" is the Lugansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, people begin to see clearly "there is Ukraine, but Ukraine could have attacked itself, like talking nonsense on TV." That's all it was there. Donbass was elevated to the rank of a "country", an administrative unit, a kind of "Crimea", which had the right to self-determination, a "referendum". I think that this is one of the mistakes of Russian political strategists who bought into the toponym "Donbass" and confused the Russian Federation, a country consisting of a bunch of independent federal units, with unitary Ukraine. For a long time, Russia did not understand why their "referendum" in Crimea and ORDLO was not recognized in the world, because "everything is according to the law." There is no law on referendums in Ukraine, and holding any "referenda" without the participation of the CEC of Ukraine is illegal. For Russians planning everything according to the blueprint of their country, this was a revelation. They realized that they dispersed and let Donbass and Crimea run along unfinished rails. Therefore, now it is important for them to close that erroneous simulacrum and create a new one, launch new narratives that will not run counter to Ukrainian legislation. What we are now seeing. In order to understand these transitions and see these simulacrum narratives, I write such informative articles, realizing that my readers belong to the thinking minority of Ukraine. So let's get back to Novorossiya. Her start was deafening. It filled all the media. Teachers and scientists, university professors, journalists and actors, writers and officials who remained in the "republics" and betrayed Ukraine immediately rushed into the battle "for Novorossiya" without regard to titles and knowledge. They gave "historical" lectures and gave "historical" arguments not only in favor of or for the necessity of creating such a "state", but also rejected all doubts that it existed. "Novorossia" turned out to be older than Atlantis, Rome and dinosaurs. If you read all the information puzzles of the Novorossiya project, you will see a competent, psychologically controlled creation of a simulacrum. In the consciousness and space of people, a country grew up, a state that was more beautiful, more developed, wiser, richer than all the countries of the world. They believed in him, as in God and the Bible. All doubts about the existence of "Novorossiya" led to an inevitable scandal between relatives, even denunciations in the "MGB L-DNR". This is how, my dear readers, information simulacra are created. The basics of psychology, NLP, imprinting, multiplied by sociology and strung on the information space, give amazing results. More than 4 million residents of Donbass clearly knew that they were "Novorossiya" and the country "Novorossiya" existed before Ukraine. It's not a phenomenon, no. It's just the smart use of knowledge. By the way, the "Novorossia" project is very similar to the "White Brotherhood" project, which once poisoned both Russia and Ukraine, which, by the way, also originates from the offices of the FSB. Only modern projects are already more refined, and it is almost impossible for a person to get out of such simulacra. The strung bead programs of the project forever settle on the consciousness, psyche and memory of a person and can flare up with renewed vigor at any time. One of the similar in structure and strength programs for building simulacra that have been used recently was the "Teacher" project. Millions of Ukrainians believe that a teacher, having become president, can remain a teacher and change their lives, making it look like a fairy tale. The film-stimulator has created a simulacrum of a "hollow-beard" in which they believe and will see this image outside of what will actually happen. The simulacrum, occupying consciousness, does not allow information that can harm or distort it. For example, here, carefully, is a very vivid example of mind control. For example, during the Revolution of Dignity (Maidan), the Komi-regs launched Anti-Maidan so that this simulacrum knocked Maidan out of people's consciousness. And many, indeed, were confused between "maidans" and "their own". "I stood on the Maidan," the Navaras-Apachenets, who really was there, but from the other side, on the Anti-Maidan, will tell you. Copying the actions, words, movements of the opponent is the capture of initiative, attention and behavioral control. Psychology, no more! But how beautifully it was used in politics. And by whom? Regionals! That is, the Kremlin! Try to repeat all his movements after the interlocutor, not intrusively, without attracting attention, as if naturally, foot by foot in sync, rub your eyebrow or nose in sync, and now he has already relaxed and trusts you, you captured his attention and entered his personal space. He sees you as himself. He listens to you like himself. Tell him what you need and he will do it with 100% accuracy. Every psychologist and NLPist knows this trick. This is a very good psychological trick. As well as the fact that in the Donbass, and in the media, they began to disperse "on the Maidan they stand only for money, they pay there, the State Department, dollars, the unemployed are standing." This gave an anti-message from the Donbass - "we are working - they are jumping." But this simulacrum is so settled in the minds that now even the most active participant in the Revolution of Dignity - this is from personal communication - will say in the direction of any opponent - "they are there for the money." So the Kremlin managed to cultivate "who is for Zelensky, the patriots of Ukraine", "who is for Poroshenko, everyone is paid money." Further, it is even easier to manage the masses: any protest is declared paid for and for "cookies", only the "paying ones" change. And it works. People have completely erased the democratic perception of the world "everyone has the right to their own opinion and political views." The simulacrum "who is against the new government is a paid national traitor" has firmly taken its place. And Ukrainians will actually kill Ukrainians, since there are no more dispositions "it's your choice", there is a disposition "if you are against us, you are an enemy." Against us, it is against the majority. Here Ukraine leaves the battlefield beautifully. If before our enemy was Putin and the Kremlin, then by leading people through the Overton window, the enemy was replaced with an internal one. And now those who are "for" will easily kill their opponents, even if both of them are in embroidered shirts, patriots of Ukraine. Just mono - "for" excludes the word "Ukraine". Mono - "for" will kill only because he was inspired "the opponent was paid, anyone who thinks differently than you is the enemy." The fashion for mono-party system, mono-power, mono-leader has been brought to Ukraine. We have formed 70% of all the prerequisites for a turn in the USSR and the creation of a cult of personality. Have you seen the beads from which all this was built? Go ahead. Thrillers and sci-fi films will be made about this someday. Today it is just a brink of war. And hybrid wars are the use of any type of weapon, bacteriological, chemical, firearms, psychological. When the simulacrum - the program is not needed, its action is stopped by a very hard jerk. They simply shift their attention to another program. The worst thing is when the next program is the same simulacrum, to get out alive and survive then the person has no chance. In the absence of programs, it will simply burn out like a match, of course, not in a literal sense. The heart will just stop. Sudden death syndrome, which since 2016 has occupied the first place in the ratings of causes of death in ORDLO, has not been studied or taken into account by anyone. This is when a person who does not even drink, even seems to be an intellectual, a hard worker, a family man and not a homeless person, dies just going to work, going out for bread, talking, watching TV. From 3 to 5 people a day are found on the streets of ORDLO, for whom, after an autopsy, pathologists put a different "sudden death syndrome" as the reason for leaving the world. The end of programs or their restructuring is always associated with the death of a large number of people, the degradation of society, and suicides. Although, I would say that in ORDLO there was no sharp push and departure from the narrative-simulacrum "Novorossiya" to the narrative-simulacrum "independent republics". They gently overlapped each other, and a lot of ORDLO residents say "the republic is the same as Novorossiya, they just didn't let us finish it to the end," and, you know, there is some truth in this. Having started with the loud and intrusive “Novorossiya”, Russia achieved positive results on one of the fronts (in ORDLO), people readily picked up the narrative and joyfully began to build an illusion country. They got into arguments, cursed, killed for any doubt or non-recognition of "Novorossiya". And when I asked "why did you vote in the referendum not for the creation of Novorossiya, but for some republics", anti-Ukrainian residents of ORDLO immediately retorted - "Republics, this is part of Novorossiya, we will build it later, when we free all of Ukraine from dill" . This is the ultimate goal of the chain of Kremlin narratives and simulacra. Reread the story of the Maidan and Anti-Maidan again. The story with "Donbass" and "Novorossiya", "we work, they jump", "on a rally only for money", "whoever is against our party and leader is against us", "our enemy is not in the Kremlin, but in Kiev." Narratives are the beads of simulacra. If you touch them like a rosary, studying bead by bead, you can see ... the end of your country. That is, the ultimate goal. Outcome. Future! Now the Kremlin is removing from the information space the narratives that were actively used in the media two years ago: the civil war, the republics, Novorossiya. They were replaced by: incident, conflict, Donbas-Ukraine, special status, autonomy. Why? Well, the "civil war" began to attract more and more attention of the Russians themselves. They, finally, in the 5th year of the war with Ukraine, it became interesting and incomprehensible how it is "a civil war in Ukraine, and thousands of graves of those killed in this war are located throughout Russia." The "Novorossiya" narrative began to harm Russia itself. After all, the pretentious "died for the glory of Novorossiya" on memorial plaques and monuments of Russians began to push these same Russians to the question - "where is this and why is this." The "Novorossiya" narrative, with which the Kremlin pompously began its march across Ukraine, because it was he who rallied the Ukrainians. As we remember, the "Novorossiya" project is the creation of a "country" subordinate to the Kremlin from the Lugansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Odessa and Kherson regions. "Novorossia" also included the Dnipropetrovsk region on the maps of 2014, but then there were rumors that they had agreed to divide Ukraine "along the Dnieper" - many thought that along the river, in fact, to the borders of the Dnieper, Dnipropetrovsk region - since its bought Kolomoisky. Then it was beautifully wrapped in a package of patriotism, which brought the borders of "Novorossiya" and the project itself out of attention. Ukrainians reacted to the word "Novorossiya" like a bull to a red rag. And this resistance united even in some cases the ununited: the Soviet man, the patriot man, the man in the white coat, the anarchist man, the nationalist man. That is, in ORDLO, the Novorossiya project acted as a unifying factor for pro-Russian citizens of Ukraine, and a unifying factor for pro-Ukrainian residents of Ukraine. If one side saw liberation in this name, then the other - occupation. Everything, thank God, reaches the Russian pioneer leaders from the FSB with a delay of 2-3 years, as we say in Sverdlovsk, the Lugansk region, "like a duck, on the second day" and holding the Novorossiya brand for two years, they managed to create in Ukraine has a high shaft of resistance to this. But in ORDLO, the word "Novorossiya" did not create an emotional movement. Accustomed to the artificial world of Donbass, people took the artificial creation of "Novorossiya" for granted, and laid all the emoji requirements on the creator (oh, this is so wonderful from the standpoint of the aggressive Orthodoxy cultivated here), that is, on Russia and Putin. You created "Novorossia", you pay! Therefore, the Novorossiya narrative has been removed from the information space, but, again, I draw your attention, this does not mean that the ultimate goal of the Kremlin has changed, the narrative has been removed, it will be replaced by another one, and the Novorossiya project will remain in execution mode. Do the words "special status", "autonomy of Donbass" irritate Ukrainians? No! The critical majority, which includes both volunteers and participants in the Revolution of Dignity, and ATO soldiers, and Armed Forces of Ukraine, and participants from volunteer battalions, and nationalists, and anarchists, do not see these words as a threat, enemy, occupation, and even consider this an improvement in the position of Ukraine, a step to the world. Therefore, everything that can irritate or unite Ukrainians is removed from the information space. The special status or autonomy of Donbass will unite only a thinking minority. The bait of the “peace at any cost” narrative has already been swallowed by the majority, and, believe me, those who, since 2014, have an enemy not in the Kremlin, but in Kiev, will not stand in one line to protect Ukraine from a new threat. The "patriotism and unity" program has already failed. Yes, and the simulacrum has such an action as displacement and substitution. Let me explain, the "Novorossiya" narrative irritated, carried the threat of occupation, fear. Prolonged use of it in the media caused fatigue from fear and expectation of a threat. Replacing the "Novorossiya" narrative with "special status" displaces fear and gives a sense of peace (well, thank God, we won't be captured, we can relax). Let me give you another vivid example. Remember, for a long time, through omnivores, illegible in information, and not inclined to information hygiene, dependent on information porridge, seemingly patriotic Ukrainians, volunteers, ATOshnikov, shafts of "zrada" rushed into the network. I especially paid attention to "Mariupol is being drained." After the shelling of Mariupol by the Russians, the words "Mariupol are being drained" were the same as "Novorossiya". They forced them to unite in the face of a threat, fear made them act, think, and react to tricolor stimuli. There was so much of this "Mariupol being leaked" that it was a matter of technique not to see the organization in the presentation of information. Over time, "Mariupol is being drained" became annoying. Then they stopped paying attention to it. And now, if you say "Mariupol is being drained" - this will cause irritation to the speaker, and not only irritation, but also distrust (as in the story with the boy and the wolves). Try to say "Mariupol, on the basis of the law on the special status of Donbass, will become part of the autonomy" - the critical majority of people will not inflame with righteous anger that could unite them against such a decision. The thinking minority will shudder. You will be sluggishly told "it cannot be", "oh, the second version of Mariupol is being leaked" and will go about their business. There is no more danger. Fool boy, the wolves didn't attack. This is understandable, but did the wolves leave the village and stop dragging sheep? History is silent about this, the main thing is that it was not the majority (village) who was left in the cold, but the boy personally. Ask the inhabitants of Mariupol, Zaporozhye, Nikolaev about their attitude to the phrase "our troops will retreat, demilitarizing the zone to the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but this is not capitulation, this is demilitarization." Most will say, “that's right,” we need peace.” Mariupol-Novorossiya, this is still annoying, but it doesn't scare anymore. But Mariupol is a special status of Donbass, it even causes pride. Ask people if the seizure of Ukraine according to the Novorossiya plan scares them, well, the pro-Ukrainian ones will answer that they say, yes, it scares them. And ask the same interlocutors whether they are afraid of the special status of Donbass. And opinions are divided. Most will say that this is the best way out of the situation and the only thing that will stop the war. Smile! Stop your breath! Count to five! Ask what is Donbass. And you will be surprised how people will tell you - "well, this is where the war is, in the Donbass, in ORDLO." Do the inhabitants of Pavlograd know that they are "Donbass"? No! And the inhabitants of Zaporozhye, Mariupol? And yet, do not look at the map and do not look for the geological boundaries of the toponym. In this case, I will reveal to you another secret. It is we, the children of a civilized country, who are looking for the borders of countries, administrative units and even toponyms. Putin has "Donbass" wherever he points his finger. And this fact applies to residents of Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporozhye, Mykolaiv and Odessa regions. I think there is a lot of text for today. And I can talk about the psychological side of the war for hours. I really love this topic. It has been forgotten, it is not studied, and there is not even such a direction on the sector of our front, so at least I will tell you how to see all the worlds in our world. I will only remind you of the important thing: in the formulas, agreements, laws and other smart and peaceful documents that guarantee us peace somewhere in the middle of our country, there is an amazing phrase "the entire territory of Donbass." The demilitarization of Donbass today is the withdrawal of our troops from the administrative borders of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Demilitarization for local elections throughout Ukraine is the withdrawal of our troops from the administrative borders of those regions that are already included in the "special status": Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkov, Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Kherson, Odessa. I will not shout "we are being drained" and "wolves", I am not a boy. I just know that a well-placed village security protection provides for reconnaissance, accounting for the wolf population and burglar alarms. Since scream, do not scream, believe it or not, and the wolves, sensing the prey, will not go far from the village. Although they can lull the vigilance of the shepherds with false attacks and shifting attention from sheep to, for example, ducks. ORDLO is preparing to "return" to Ukraine. Russia closes funding projects, equalizes the pricing policy in the housing and communal services sector, in June of this year ORDLO was reconnected from the Russian Pobeda station to Ukrainian power supply lines, Ukrainian medicines, grafting material, humanitarian missions began to be admitted to ORDLO. Propaganda for local elections intensified in cities (synchronously with Ukraine) and propaganda for the return of old pre-war officials-mayors, judges, prosecutors who had previously left ORDLO due to occupation (they are ours, they can), as a rule, these are regional-Komi-socialist cadres . At the same time, officials from the peaceful parts of Ukraine, loyal to the Ukrainian authorities, began to talk about the need to return to the occupied cities and together talk about how to stop the conflict "started by the previous government of Ukraine." As proof of the closure (or rather, reformatting) of the "republic" project to the "status" project, I bring news from the zone: in ORDLO, the growth of tariffs for housing and communal services, electricity and gas, the motive is "cost growth". The pricing policy of housing and communal services in ORDLO should catch up with Ukrainian prices in six months, so that the old narrative "everything is cheaper here than dill" is not used. Olena Stepova Writer, blogger, lawyer
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 surface that Russian mercenaries were among the many victims of the strike. How many died? Why are they fighting in Syria? And why this is in any case a blow for Russia - in the material TUT.BY.
Who attacked whom and why?
The collision took place on the banks of the Euphrates River, in the area of gas fields. A few kilometers to the north of this zone is a large gas processing plant that receives raw materials from the nearby At-Tabiyah field, the largest in all of Syria, which produced 13 million cubic meters of natural gas per day before the war. At the end of September 2017, Kurdish forces from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with the support of the US-led military coalition liberated the plant from Islamic State militants.
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 capture a gas processing plant in order to bring it under the control of the Syrian government. Russian mercenaries from Wagner's private military company (PMC) 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 detailed the American version of what happened that day.
According to the general, on the evening of February 7, the international coalition led by the United States was on the defensive, and American military advisers helped the Syrian rebels repel "an unprovoked and coordinated attack on their positions from behind the Euphrates River." The general said that before the attack, the enemy carried out artillery preparation, in which tanks, mortars, rocket and cannon artillery took part. Under the cover of this shelling, a force of about a battalion moved into position.
The coalition struck the attackers with F-15E fighter jets, MQ-9 drones, B-52 strategic bombers, AC-130 heavy attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.
The general called the air strikes pinpoint and said that several artillery systems and tanks were destroyed as a result. After that, 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 in the advancing group and whether there were Russian citizens there.
How many Russian mercenaries died in Syria?
Data on how many Russian mercenaries died in the clash at Deir ez-Zor vary. Numbers from 5 to 644 people are called.
5 dead
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that reports “about the deaths of tens and hundreds of Russian citizens are classic disinformation.”
“According to preliminary data, as a result of the armed clash, the causes of which are now being investigated, 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, 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,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
14 dead
This figure was announced to Pravda.Ru by Andrei 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 of Russian volunteers killed in Syria, Troshev replied that in fact their number is 14 people.
“On your forehead, [… man is a reproductive organ], write to yourself: 14 volunteers died in Syria. [... Tired of] you all together chewing snot there and telling fairy tales in your articles, all together winding snot on the mill of enemies ... And as for your speculations there, what you write, and [... abnormal] investigations - no one left anyone . If the Motherland had abandoned us, we would have been gone for a long time, and you, by the way, too, ”Troshev said in a telephone conversation.
80-100 dead
Such data are provided by Reuters, citing sources in the article “Russia lost 300 people killed and wounded in combat in Syria.”
A Russian military doctor said that about 100 people had died, while a source who knows several of the fighters said that the number of victims exceeded 80.
The agency staff also spoke with Yevgeny Shabaev, ataman of the Khovrino Cossack society, who said that on February 14 he visited acquaintances wounded in Syria at the Central Military Hospital of the Ministry of Defense in Khimki. According to him, the wounded told him that 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 by The New York Times by Russian businessman Alexander Ionov, who works in Syria in the field of security. Referring to conversations with colleagues at several private military organizations, he said he could estimate casualties 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 cites data on 200 dead, 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, Alexei Sobolev, in an interview with the Dozhd TV channel, reported 217 dead Russian mercenaries. He also specified that another 10-15 people subsequently died in hospitals.
200-250 dead
On February 16, Radio Liberty received this information from one of the Wagner PMC mercenaries, who, according to him, was a participant in the battle on February 7, moreover, he commanded one of the units.
“200-250 killed, about the same number of wounded,” he said.
600-644 dead
This number of deaths named former Minister of Defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Igor Girkin (Strelkov). According to him, various information comes to him from Syria about the number of deaths - "for 600 (644, to be more precise - and these are only those killed)".
“I don’t quite understand where such losses come from, because the entire defeated column numbered a little more than 500 people. But it is also impossible to exclude the possibility of such losses, ”Strelkov doubts the reliability of these data.
About 600 dead tells and "coordinator of volunteers in the Donbas" Mikhail Polynkov.
“I went to the hospital (according to media reports, there are wounded mercenaries in at least three Russian military hospitals. - Approx. TUT.BY), I visited one of the survivors in that meat grinder near Khishim. What can I say, in a nutshell. The figures 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 PMC Wagner: who are they, what do they do in Syria and how much do they earn?
The private military company Wagner, or the Wagner Group, is an unofficial military organization that is not part of the regular Russian Armed Forces and does not have any legal status: in Russia, as in Belarus, mercenaries are illegal.
The military units of the PMC Wagner numbered - at different times and according to various sources - from 1350 to 2500 people. PMCs are people with military experience - retirees and former contractors.
Mercenaries from this private military company participated in the armed conflict in the Donbass.
“What did the Wagner group do in eastern Ukraine: downed an Il-76 with Ukrainian paratroopers, when 49 soldiers were killed, the assault on the Luhansk airport and participation in the assaults on Debaltseve and other settlements,” Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasily Hrytsak said in October 2017 .
According to the Fontanka publication, which pays considerable attention to Wagner PMCs and has conducted many investigations on this topic, since the fall of 2015, mercenaries PMC Wagner fighting in Syria on the side of forces supporting Assad. The main tasks of mercenaries are the protection and defense of oil-bearing regions, 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 Polis LLC, behind which are people from the structures of billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin (he is often referred to in the media as "Putin's cook"). LLC "Euro Polis" undertook to liberate and protect oil fields and factories for reimbursement of the costs of hostilities plus a quarter of the oil and gas produced.
How much mercenaries earn in Syria is not known for certain.
In January 2017, journalists from the Center for Investigation Management, citing sources, said that during training in Russia, the salary of a beginner is 80 thousand Russian rubles per month (about 1.4 thousand dollars. - Approx. TUT.BY). On a business trip, the private receives 240 thousand (4.2 thousand dollars) and bonuses for successfully completed tasks. Platoon commander - up to half a million rubles (8.8 thousand dollars). Komroty - another 200-300 thousand more (more than 12 thousand dollars). For the injury, compensation up to two million (35 thousand dollars). If they kill, the relatives will receive three million (more than 53 thousand dollars).”
The founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) activist group, Ruslan Leviev, in an interview with Kommersant, again citing sources, said that during the training period, training, during the initial transfer to Syria the salary is 50-80 thousand Russian rubles (from 880 to 1400 dollars. - Approx. TUT.BY).
“If you have some 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 the 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 paratrooper artilleryman, a veteran of Afghanistan and Chechnya Andrei Troshev (call sign Sedoy).
From left to right: Andrey Bogatov (Vagner), Andrey Troshev (Sedoy), Vladimir Putin, Alexander Kuznetsov (Ratibor), Dmitry Utkin (Wagner) In 2016, the leaders of Wagner PMCs visited Vladimir Putin - photo from the meeting
Image copyright Getty Images
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 surface that Russians were among the many victims of the strike.
Estimates of the number of dead and injured vary widely. According to one version of the media, they worked for the so-called "private military corporation" (PMC) from Russia on the side of the forces of the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Russia does not officially confirm the death of its citizens and the existence of PMCs.
The Russian Foreign Ministry on February 15, that as a result of an American airstrike, five Russians really could have died, while there were no regular military personnel among them.
The press service of the President of Russia refuses to comment on the incident. The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that there were no Russian military personnel in the strike area.
Reuters: there could have been up to 300 dead and wounded
A Russian military doctor told the agency that the death toll was about 100 and the wounded about 200. Another source who personally knows several fighters said that the number of victims over 80.
According to the agency, the time of their death coincided with the battle on February 7 in the vicinity of Deir ez-Zor. Coalition forces after they allegedly attacked the rebel headquarters, which housed coalition military advisers.
In addition, the agency learned that wounded fighters evacuated from Syria over the past few days have been taken to four Russian military hospitals.
A military doctor who works in one of the Moscow hospitals and treats the wounded brought from Syria, told the agency that as of Saturday, February 10, there were more than 50 such patients, 30% of which were severely injured.
According to a health worker who spoke on condition of anonymity, at least three planes with wounded. According to him, these were military transport aircraft with two or three modules specially equipped for the seriously wounded and seats for the lightly wounded.
Image copyright Getty ImagesAtaman of the Khovrino Cossack Society Yevgeny Shabaev told the agency that on Wednesday he visited friends wounded in Syria at the central military hospital of the Ministry of Defense in Khimki.
The wounded allegedly told him that two units of Russian private military specialists who took part in the battle near Deir ez-Zor numbered 550 people, of which only 200 were unaffected.
The Reuters report is not based on sources that could be trusted, military expert Viktor Murakhovsky said.
"A military doctor - who is this? A Russian serviceman belonging to the military medical department of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, or who is he?" - he said in a commentary to the Russian service of the BBC.
Former State Duma deputy and retired colonel Viktor Alksnis wrote on his Facebook on the morning of February 16 that, according to unofficial data he received, as a result of a clash on February 7 in Syria, 334 people.
"217 people - the 5th Assault Detachment [PMC], 10 people - the 2nd Assault Detachment, 94 people - the Vesna Assault Detachment, 13 people - the Artillery Division," wrote the former deputy. dies of severe wounds in hospitals.
Names of the dead
The radio station "Echo of Moscow" on Thursday evening named another Russian who died as a result of an American strike - it turned out to be a 35-year-old Oleg Tereshchenko, a resident of the village of Krylovskaya, Krasnodar Territory.
The death of Tereshchenko in Syria was confirmed to radio stations by four of his acquaintances. According to Ekho Moskvy, Tereshchenko's body was identified by one of the fighters who survived the attack.
The date of the funeral of the deceased is unknown. According to his friend, first he must be identified by his relatives, which has not yet been done.
Another interlocutor of Ekho Moskvy said that on February 15, Tereshchenko's body was supposed to be "brought home for burial."
Image copyright AFPEarlier, the investigative group Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) released the names of seven Russians who could have died in an airstrike in Syria. The fact that several of them died there was confirmed to journalists by their relatives.
This Alexey Ladygin from Ryazan Stanislav Matveev And Igor Kosoturov from Asbest, Sverdlovsk region, Ruslan Gavrilov from the village of Kedrovoe, Sverdlovsk region, Vladimir Loginov from Kaliningrad, Alexey Shikhov from Nizhny Novgorod.
In addition, there is information about the death Vladimir Vinogradenko with the call sign "Apostle". In Rostov-on-Don, he was a member of the public organization Triune Rus'. Its head, Sergei Moiseev, published on his Facebook page a photo of the deceased and condolences.
About death in Syria Alexey Nizhegorodov(place of residence in Russia is not known) other alleged Wagner PMC fighters report on their social media accounts.
The death of another Russian - Kirill Ananyeva from Moscow - the Russian service of the BBC was confirmed by the co-chairman of the unregistered party "Other Russia" Alexander Averin. Ananiev was a member of The Other Russia, and before that he was a member of the National Bolshevik Party, whose activities are banned in Russia by a court.
How events unfolded: versions
On February 7, American media, citing an unnamed official, reported that about 100 people had been killed as a result of coalition strikes.
The next day, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that 25 Syrian militiamen were wounded as a result of the incident (as the department calls the forces fighting on the side of Assad). The Ministry did not report on the dead.
The Russian department also presented their version of events, which differed from the American one. According to her, not the fighters of the "Syrian Democratic Forces", supported by the United States, were attacked, but the Syrian militias who were conducting an operation against the "sleeping cell" of the "Islamic State" * in the area of the former oil refinery "El-Isba".
The fact that Russian mercenaries were killed as a result of the American strike was reported by the American television channel CBS on February 9, citing sources in the US Department of Defense. According to the channel's sources, these were fighters from Russian private military companies that are participating in the Syrian conflict on the side of government forces.
Then a group of independent investigators, the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), in their telegram channel suggested that the Russian military from the Wagner PMC, which operates in mineral deposits in the Euphrates valley, could have fallen under the US airstrike in Syria.
Igor Girkin (Strelkov), a former field commander of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), also reported on the attack on the military from the Wagner PMC on his page on the VKontakte social network.
According to the Kommersant newspaper, the cause of the incident was an attempt by big businessmen supporting the Assad regime to seize the oil and gas fields of the Kurds - US allies.
To this end, pro-government tribal formations went on the offensive. The so-called pro-government detachments of ISIS Hunters, reinforced by Wagner PMC fighters, were in the second echelon. Both were hit, an unnamed source told the publication.
A Moskovsky Komsomolets source in Syria also reported that the Syrians, together with Russian mercenaries, decided to seize the plant from the Kurds in the American presence zone: “There were three companies of private traders and a militia of Syrians. The first line of Kurds and Americans was demolished rather quickly, even too easily. Then aviation, drones and turntables flew in, and for four hours they threshed."
The publication gave another version. The allegedly shot convoy counterattacked the Islamic State militants, who retreated towards the oil refinery, where a secret US base could be located.
What does the PHC do?
"PMC Wagner" is an informal military organization that allegedly took part in the hostilities in the Donbass on the side of the separatists and in Syria - on the side of President Assad. The structure was first reported by Fontanka in the fall of 2015.
The founder of the company is called Dmitry Utkin (call sign Wagner), a lieutenant colonel in the reserve, who previously served as commander of the 700th separate special forces detachment in the 2nd special forces brigade in the Pskov region.
According to Fontanka, businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin may be behind the PMC. A company allegedly linked to him, Euro Polis, allegedly entered into an agreement with the Assad regime, according to which it receives a quarter of the proceeds from the sale of oil in the territory reclaimed from ISIS.
The participation of Russian private military companies in the hostilities in Syria is denied in Moscow. In Russia, there is no law regulating the activities of PMCs, and mercenarism, according to the Russian Criminal Code, is a crime.
At the end of 2014, the draft law "On Private Military Security Companies", introduced through the Duma Defense Committee by deputies Gorovtsov, Shein, Nosovko, was rejected by the State Duma.
However, on February 14, the head of the State Duma Defense Committee, Vladimir Shamanov, announced a new bill on PMCs, which, according to him, was sent to the government for feedback.
* - Dorganization activities"Islamic State" (ISIS)banned in Russia.
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 surface that Russian mercenaries were among the many victims of the strike. How many died? Why are they fighting in Syria? And why this is in any case a blow for Russia - in the material TUT.BY.
Who attacked whom and why?
The collision took place on the banks of the Euphrates River, in the area of gas fields. A few kilometers to the north of this zone is a large gas processing plant, which receives raw materials from the nearby At-Tabiyah field, the largest in all of Syria, which produced 13 million cubic meters of natural gas per day before the war. At the end of September 2017, Kurdish forces from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with the support of the US-led military coalition liberated the plant from Islamic State militants.
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 capture a gas processing plant in order to bring it under the control of the Syrian government. Russian mercenaries from Wagner's private military company (PMC) 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 detailed the American version of what happened that day.
Geoffrey Harrigan. Photo: defense.gov
According to the general, on the evening of February 7, the international coalition led by the United States was on the defensive, and American military advisers helped the Syrian rebels repel "an unprovoked and coordinated attack on their positions from behind the Euphrates River." The general said that before the attack, the enemy carried out artillery preparation, in which tanks, mortars, rocket and cannon artillery took part. Under the cover of this shelling, a force of about a battalion moved into position.
The coalition struck the attackers with F-15E fighter jets, MQ-9 drones, B-52 strategic bombers, AC-130 heavy attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.
The general called the air strikes targeted, and said that several artillery systems and tanks were destroyed as a result. After that, 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 in the advancing group and whether there were Russian citizens there.
How many Russian mercenaries died in Syria?
Data on how many Russian mercenaries in the clash at Deir ez-Zor vary. Numbers are given from 5 to 644 dead.
5 dead
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that reports "about the deaths of tens and hundreds of Russian citizens are classic disinformation."
Maria Zakharova. Photo: Reuters
“According to preliminary data, as a result of the armed clash, the causes of which are now being investigated, 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, 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,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman 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 of Russian volunteers killed in Syria, Troshev replied that in fact their number is 14 people.
“On your forehead, [… a human reproductive organ], write to yourself: 14 volunteers died in Syria. [... Tired of] you are already chewing snot all together and telling fairy tales in your articles, all together winding snot on the mill of enemies ... And as for your speculations there, what you write, and [... abnormal] investigations - no one left anyone . If the Motherland had abandoned us, we would have been gone for a long time, and you, by the way, too, ”Troshev said in a telephone conversation.
80-100 dead
Such data are provided by Reuters, citing sources in the article “Russia lost 300 people killed and wounded in combat in Syria.”
"A Russian military doctor said that about 100 people died, and a source who knows several fighters said that the number of victims exceeded 80," the article says.
The agency staff also spoke with Yevgeny Shabaev, ataman of the Khovrino Cossack society, who said that on February 14 he visited acquaintances wounded in Syria at the Central Military Hospital of the Ministry of Defense in Khimki. According to him, the wounded told him that 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 by The New York Times by Russian businessman Alexander Ionov, who works in Syria in the field of security. Referring to conversations with colleagues at several private military organizations, he said he could estimate casualties 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 cites data on 200 dead, 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, Alexei Sobolev, in an interview with the Dozhd TV channel, reported 217 dead Russian mercenaries. He also specified that another 10-15 people subsequently died in hospitals.
200-250 dead
On February 16, Radio Liberty received this information from one of the Wagner PMC mercenaries, who, according to him, was a participant in the battle on February 7, moreover, he commanded one of the units.
“200-250 killed, about the same number wounded,” he said.
600 - 644 dead
This number of deaths named former Minister of Defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Igor Girkin (Strelkov). According to him, various information comes to him from Syria about the number of dead - "over 600 (644, to be more precise, - and this is only the dead)".
“I don’t quite understand where such losses come from, because the entire defeated column numbered a little more than 500 people. But it is also impossible to exclude the possibility of such losses,” Strelkov doubts the reliability of these data.
About 600 dead tells and "coordinator of volunteers in the Donbas" Mikhail Polynkov.
“I went to the hospital (according to media reports, there are wounded mercenaries in at least three Russian military hospitals - approx. TUT.BY), I visited one of the survivors in that meat grinder near Khishim. What can I say, in a nutshell. The figures about 600 two hundredths are not a myth. There were three assault detachments with an average of 300 people from Russians and Donetsk citizens,” he said.
Mercenaries from PMC Wagner: who are they, what do they do 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 Russian armed forces and does not have any legal status: in Russia, as in Belarus, mercenaries are illegal.
The military units of PMC Wagner numbered - at different times and according to various sources - from 1350 to 2500 people. People with military experience go to PMCs - leftovers and former contractors.
Mercenaries from this private military company participated in the armed conflict in the Donbass.
“What did the Wagner group do in eastern Ukraine: downing an Il-76 with Ukrainian paratroopers, when 49 soldiers were killed, storming the Luhansk airport and participating in the storming of Debaltseve and other settlements,” Vasily Hrytsak, head of the Security Service of Ukraine, said 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 fighting in Syria on the side of forces supporting Assad. The main tasks of mercenaries are the protection and defense of oil-bearing regions, and, if possible, the advancement and capture of territory. The publication also reported that there is an agreement between Syrian government organizations and the Russian OOO Euro Polis, behind which are people from the structures of billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin (he is often referred to in the media as “Putin’s cook”). LLC "Euro Polis" undertook to liberate and protect the oil fields and factories for reimbursement of the costs of military operations plus a quarter of the oil and gas produced.
How much mercenaries earn in Syria is not known for certain.
In January 2017, journalists from the Center for Investigation Management, citing sources, said that during training in Russia, the salary of a beginner is 80 thousand Russian rubles per month (about 1.4 thousand dollars - approx. TUT.BY). On a business trip, the private receives 240 thousand (4.2 thousand dollars) and bonuses for successfully completed tasks. Platoon commander - up to half a million rubles (8.8 thousand dollars). Komroty - another 200-300 thousand more (more than 12 thousand dollars). For the injury, compensation up to two million (35 thousand dollars). If they kill, relatives will receive three million (more than 53 thousand dollars).”
The founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) activist group, Ruslan Leviev, in an interview with Kommersant, again citing sources, said that during the training period, training, during the initial transfer to Syria the salary is 50-80 thousand Russian rubles (from 880 to 1400 dollars - approx. TUT.BY).
“If you have some 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 the 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 paratrooper artilleryman, a veteran of Afghanistan and Chechnya Andrei Troshev (call sign Sedoy).
From left to right: Andrey Bogatov (Vagner), Andrey Troshev (Sedoy), Vladimir Putin, Alexander Kuznetsov (Ratibor), Dmitry Utkin (Wagner).
In 2016, the leaders of PMC Wagner visited Vladimir Putin - photo from the meeting
State Duma Vice Speaker from the Liberal Democratic Party Igor Lebedev will hold consultations with the leadership of the State Duma to draw attention to the deaths of several hundred Russian citizens in Syria. As the politician told Storm, even if they were fighters from the Wagner private military company, this situation cannot be ignored. Although many foreign media confirmed the fact of the clash and death of fighters of the Syrian pro-government forces, the Russian Defense Ministry does not comment on this incident. Experts believe that, despite official statements by Russia and the United States about the end of military operations, the situation in this region is far from stable and military clashes will continue.
No comments
“All officials are hushing up this situation. I think that it could be, and I am sure that the Americans will explain this by saying that they did not know that they were Russians. After all, we officially do not take part in the ground operation in Syria - we use only the Aerospace Forces. Therefore, apparently, the Ministry of Defense does not comment on this incident in any way ... As for the request, we will consult with colleagues, with the leadership of the State Duma - if it is done, then from the entire parliament, and not from several deputies, so that it would be more effective, ”explained“ Storm" Igor Lebedev.
In his opinion, if such a fact took place and this is not about the official armed forces of the Russian Federation, then such a situation should not be hushed up.
“In any case, these are Russian citizens who died in peacetime. It is necessary to express condolences to relatives and friends, to say about it. The authorities are simply obliged to do this, ”Lebedev is convinced, who asked a public question on his Facebook: why the authorities are silent and do not comment on the huge losses, which are estimated at several hundred people.
Alexander Sherin, deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, told Storm that he had already instructed his lawyers to prepare a protocol instruction to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“Its essence is that the State Duma instructs the Defense Committee to request information from the Russian Ministry of Defense on reports of the death of Russians. Either it must be refuted, or, if it cannot be explained publicly, it must be done behind closed doors. The deputies have the appropriate permits, they are aware of the criminal liability for disclosure. But we, as representatives of our voters, must understand what is really happening in Syria,” Alexander Sherin believes.
According to him, the citizens of Russia, regardless of the type of their profession, if they do not violate the laws, should feel protected anywhere in the world.
“If this information is confirmed, then it is necessary to make sure that those responsible for the death of the Russians are severely punished,” says the parliamentarian, noting that he also wanted to find out from the Ministry of Defense the reasons for the death of the Russian pilot Filipov, why his plane was unaccompanied, and the militants were ahead of the Russian accompanying groups.
One of the first to report the death of fighters of the Wagner private military company in his WarGonzo Telegram channel was war correspondent Semyon Pegov, who posted a transcript of the conversations of Russians in Syria.
"Long story short, it's a f**k**Ali ours, that's shorter. In one company nah ** 200 people nah ** two hundredth right away, in the other 10 people. And I don’t know about the third one, but they also disheveled it very much - in general, here, in short, three companies suffered, so they beat the Pindos, first they covered f**k with artillery, and then they raised f**k** four turntables and in the carousel was launched, in short, from large-caliber machine guns nah **, ”said one of the PMC fighters.
"Brother, look. There are 177 killed - only the 5th company. The two didn't really catch on. TO Or rather, they destroyed the entire five, they were rolled out there by aviation, turntables, artillery, and the Kurds and the Americans flooded them, the boys simply had no chance, almost all of the five lay down. Here are the remnants of heavy ones, now the “Tulip” will come at night today, then we will meet already ... ”- said another Russian.
“Now the guy called back - a total of 215“ two-hundredths ”, like so, in short, rolled out just hard ...” - quoted another WarGonzo fighter.
Another Telegram channel that described the situation with the death of Russians was Directorate 4. Its authors reported that the battle was for the Koneko gas field, which was defended by government troops with the support of Russian PMCs.
“All sides agree that about 100 people were killed in the strike. Among them are both ordinary soldiers and high-ranking officers and Brigadier General Yusuf Aisha Haider ... In addition to the SAA military personnel, the Iranian Fatimiyun brigades and representatives of the Russian PMCs took part in the attack. Concerning the latter, fierce disputes broke out regarding exactly how many Russians were killed, ”the authors reported.
After some time, information appeared in unofficial Russian media.
Reedus was able to obtain confirmation of a catastrophic clash between Russian mercenaries and American troops in Syria… Wagner’s private military company suffered heavy losses in Syria as a result of the actions of American artillery and aircraft, which covered the ground units of their Kurdish allies,” Reedus published a note with the headline “The United States took terrible revenge on Russia in Syria, killing more than 200 Wagner PMC fighters.
“PMC Wagner suffers combat losses. Moscow was unable to prevent the aggression of Washington, Tel Aviv and Ankara against Damascus,” with such a headline on Monday, February 12, the material of Nezavisimaya Gazeta was published.
“Tel Aviv said that on Saturday they “hit 12 targets in Syria, including four Syrian air defense facilities.” Whether Syrian anti-aircraft missile units were destroyed is unknown. But the strikes posed a threat to Russian military specialists who could be on the positions of the Syrian air defense,” the publication says, citing UN Secretary General António Guterres that “at least 277 civilians were killed in Syria from February 4 to 9 ".
The war goes on
Foreign media did not ignore the defeat of the military forces of Bashar al-Assad. CNN was one of the first to report on the impact. According to his sources, the US military did not know who exactly was part of these pro-government forces. At the same time, CNN sources noted that none of the American military personnel were injured.
The plot on this topic was made by the American television channel FoxNews. It says that the reason for the airstrike was the attack of about 500 military personnel associated with Russia and the regime of Bashar al-Assad's regime on a US outpost in eastern Syria. The outpost is five miles from the Euphrates River, which separates US-backed troops from those of President Assad's regime, aided by Russia.
A devastating blow to the militants was dealt with the help of a Lockheed AC-130 flying close support artillery battery, F-15, F-22 fighters, Apache attack helicopters and ground-based marine artillery.
The Kremlin refrained from commenting on the incident, redirecting all questions to the Russian Defense Ministry. This was announced on February 8 by the press secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov.
So far, not a single comment has been made from the Ministry of Defense itself. As Shtorm's sources, who work closely with the military department, said on condition of anonymity, Russia cannot officially acknowledge its participation in this operation, therefore, everything possible will be done to hush up this information and prevent its dissemination by the media. According to the source, now they are trying to launch fake photos and videos on the Internet in order to dissuade the Russians of what happened.
According to experts familiar with the situation, it was caused by the actions of the Russian military in response to the heroic death of the pilot of the Su-25 attack aircraft, Roman Filipov. As a result of the strike of the Russian Aerospace Forces on Idlib, more than 30 pro-American military personnel were killed, including US military advisers.
The Russian Aerospace Forces launched a group attack on the positions of the militants who shot down the Russian attack aircraft
The Ministry of Defense announced the destruction of more than 30 terrorists February 4, 2018
This opinion is shared by the lawyer of the International Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, Alexander Ionov.
“Apparently, the Americans showed integrity, decided to take revenge and struck, but not at the units and formations of regular Russian troops, but at the allies - Wagner PMC and militias of Syrian origin. This does not change the fact that the citizens of Russia died, ”Ionov notes.
The incident drew the attention of the former head of the DPR Ministry of Defense Igor Strelkov, who believes that the mass death of Russians is known everywhere, but not in Russia.
“After the bloody defeat of the Russian mercenaries, who were left to reclaim oil fields on the left bank of the Euphrates for their employers, the Syrian Democratic Forces decided to take a radical approach to the problem and push the enemy to the right bank of the river. In fact, Assad is left with two bridgeheads on the left bank, from one of them an attempt was made to attack the Kurds on February 7th. This attempt was immediately repulsed by coalition aviation, especially since the concentration of mercenary forces has been observed for the past two weeks, it was written about at the end of January, ”explains Strelkov in his blog.