Special Forces Day celebrated in Russia’s Novosibirsk with video showing names of 78 soldiers from elite 24th Brigade killed in Ukraine

During celebrations held for Spetsnaz (Russian special forces) Day in the Shilovsky garrison in the Russian city of Novosibirsk, a video was shown featuring names of 78 killed soldiers who had served in the 24th Separate Guards Special Purpose Brigade. The video was posted on the social media page of the Novosibirsk district administration.

According to the video, acting commander of the 24th Brigade, lieutenant colonel Vladimir Galimov said that soldiers from the brigade had received 735 orders and medals for execution of combat missions during the war in Ukraine — 176 out of them are Orders of Courage, 78 of which had been awarded posthumously.

In particular, the list of the dead mentions a 36-year-old captain of special purpose troops Dmitry Pak. According to previous reports by Berdsk News, Pak’s funeral was held back in March in the town of Berdsk. “During his 14 years of service, Spetsnaz captain Dmitry Pak took part in all the operations involving Russian soldiers: liberation of Crimea, military operations in the Syrian Arab Republic and Libya,” the media outlet wrote.

The list of the dead also includes 29-year-old Kara Boydoyev from the village Saratan, Altai. According to media outlet Gorno-Altaysk News, he was killed on 22 March. After training, he was deployed to one of the military units in the Novosibirsk region, where he served as deputy commander of a special purpose reconnaissance group. Later, he served in Tajikistan, from where he was deployed to Ukraine, the media outlet states.

In May, the command of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces reported that Ukrainian soldiers had eliminated a group of Russian servicemen from the 24th Separate Brigade in the Donetsk region, in the area of the village Yampil.

On 31 May 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the brigade the honorary title of a “guards” brigade for “mass heroism and courage, resilience and bravery demonstrated by the personnel of the brigade during military action in defence of Homeland and state interests in a situation of armed conflict”.

The 24th Separate Guards Special Purpose Brigade was created in 1977 on the basis of the 806th Special Purpose Company with direct subordination to the Zabaykalsky region military district headquarters. Since 2012, the brigade has been headquartered in the city of Novosibirsk.

When it comes to Spetsnaz units, the number of personnel, arms, and often, the location of permanent deployment are classified. The 24th Brigade took part in the First and Second Chechen Wars, as well as the war in Syria.