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New details unsurfaced regarding the three Russian soldiers that were killed on February 22nd during reconnaissance in Syria’s Deir Ezzor, Russian outlet Novaya Gazeta reported. The Russian Ministry of Defense initially announced of the deaths of the three soldiers on March 25th.
“A Russian UAZ off-road vehicle with a license plate number 928159 was ambushed in a desert region of Deir ez-Zor province,” said a message Novaya received from a source fighting on the side of the Russian and Syrian armed forces. – In the car were three Russian officers and a Syrian colonel, a Christian from Quseir named Monser Louis. He was their translator.”
According to the report, the Russian soldiers – two colonels and a major – were ambushed 40 kilometers from the village of Al-Mayadin, where the Russian military post is located.
The UAZ vehicle with the Russians allegedly moved along the highway Palmyra-Al-Mayadin, which runs through the desert, in the direction of Palmyra. According to the report, the car with the officers was accompanied by a convoy of six cars, in which there were about 30 fighters – Russians and Syrians, as well as two pick-up trucks, equipped with large-caliber DShK machineguns.
Their UAZ vehicle was later found with traces of heavy shelling and blood in the front and rear seats. Ten meters from the car there were “two huge pools of blood” on the sand, and next to them – remnants of two soldiers’ worth of military equipment.
The news outlet claimed that judging by the amount of blood, two of the passengers of the UAZ vehicle died on the spot, and the attackers took their bodies along with the two survivors. Soon after the soldiers vanished there were reports that the Russian Ministry of Defense organized a search and rescue operation.
Novaya Gazeta said one of the colonels belonged to the command of the 7th brigade of Syrian government forces, under the joint leadership of the Russian and Syrian military commanders.
On March 15th, BBC Russia [the report has since been updated], citing relatives, published the name of one of the Russian soldiers. It was Major Sukhrob Karimov, his remains were brought to Moscow, and parents living in Moscow were invited to provide genetic material necessary for analyzing and identifying the body.
In the same report, “BBC” talked about the “two colonels” who allegedly disappeared with Karimov, but no details were provided. And on March 25th, the Ministry of Defense reported that all those killed on February 22 were ambushed.
The quoted sources said that the Russian Ministry of Defense immediately sent a rescue team, the positions of the militants were discovered and destroyed. The bodies of the three Russians and one Syrian were discovered and taken back.
The recent Russian Defense Ministry statement said that a group of 30 militants linked to the death of the Russians was eliminated as a result of the joint operation of the Aerospace Forces and the Special Operations Forces.
Overall, Russian casualties in Syria are estimated at 112, according to official numbers. Nearly half of them are a result of the An-26 plane that crashed on March 6th at the Russian Khmeimim base, and the IL-20, shot down on September 17th.
One of the most known incident is the heroic death of Russian Special Forces officer Maxim Pletnev.
“He fired a guided projectile (ATGM) at the enemy’s rocket launcher, who responded with a shot at him. Maxim could have survived if he had left his position, especially since he saw a rocket flying at him. But he decided to bring the ATGM to the goal and accomplished this task, depriving the enemy of expensive equipment. Alas, he didn’t have enough time to hide from the return shot.”
Pletnev died on January 31st, at the age of 24 and was buried on February 4th at the Tikhoretsk cemetery.
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For Russian officers of the rank of Major and Colonel to be traveling through dangerous areas in a non-armoured vehicle like the UAZ is just crazy!
They sure made it as easy as possible for the ragheads to waste them, very embarrassing for Russia in my opinion.
There is a reason the MoD issues Tigrs and Typhoon vehicles to their forces in Syria… Use them.
Indeed!
Russians were careless and lax again! Never mobilize anything humanitarian or reconnaissance or any kind of Russian personnel inside Syria without being escorted by heavily armed units complete with APCs!
It is because Syrian themselves welcome the Russians and it gives a false sense of safety.. While the US wants to make especially sure the Russians get hit so its easy to provide logistics about them to the ISIS mercenaries in middle of the crowd of normal looking people.
I must echo Brian’s sentiments;- Someone needs their arse kicked into orbit for allowing such infantile planning, and tell me, someone please, where were the other 5 vehicles who were acting as armed escorts ?????????????? Their ( supposed ) lack of action smacks of cowardice ??????????? OR…………. perhaps someone or serveral persons just wanted to see these guys get wasted ?????????? We are living in interesting times, but I must add that I am very sorry to hear of the loss of any Russian or Syrian personnel.
And again Moscows patience with the enemy resulted in dead russians. Those camelfuckers sure got secret informations from us/mossad. How else did they know the positions of the russian service members? Usually they are too dumb to find their own asses.
Exactly!
Remember how They got a Russian General in DZ? Also 2 colonels and a major as well. How did ISIS know where to fire their artillery shell.. Same goes for the Russian hospital in Aleppo.
I have noticed that following these deaths in the Russian ranks by some Syrian traitor cowherd, something bad always happened in the US. Just wait, crazy people exist in great numbers in US.
Anyone can fall into an ambush during a war, that is just life in a battle zone, and particularly if the ambushing forces get direct satellite intel. The report simply calls them “militants” and that in fact does not tell us anything about them. They may not be “ISIS”, they could well be Special Forces from another country (not necessarily American), as some people say the Daesh is not capable of this kind of attack against a trained military unit (that is, bringing in 30 fighters secretly to ambush a Russian unit and make a getaway). And if the Russians splashed them later to the tune of 30 fighters, whoever sent them got a bloody nose for their trouble. Hope they were a western SF unit – they’d qualify as “militants”!