Translated material
Losses in Syria: from 5 to 200
Photo: CNN
Refutation from Zakharova
A week after the tragic battle on the eastern shore of the Euphrates in Syria in the province of Deir Ez-Zor, where under the shelling of the anti-terrorist coalition led by the United States, a large detachment of pro-government forces with the participation of the Russian military, a representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, announced an official position. At a briefing on Thursday, the director of the Department of Information and Press of the Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said: “Materials about the death of dozens and hundreds of Russian citizens are classical disinformation. Not 400, not 200, not 100 or 10 (dead), according to preliminary data, as a result of the combat clash (February 7), the causes of which are now being clarified. It can be about the death of five people, presumably, citizens of Russia. There are victims, but all this requires verification, in particular, citizenship - whether they are all citizens of Russia or other countries. ”
Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said: “Materials about death
dozens and hundreds of Russian citizens are
Classical misinformation photo: vk.com
Zakharova emphasized that there were no Russian troops among the victims, and she called the dissemination of information about this by another example of misinformation. In general, her statement was interpreted by official agencies as a refutation of a bluff of foreign media.
“So they admitted,” the opposition politician, ex-deputy of the State Duma Dmitry Gudkov, responded to the performance of Zakharova on his blog. - recognized the mercenaries - once. The corpses were recognized - two. We moved to the next line of defense-only 5 people, Impetet. I will not ask stupid questions “who is it”, “Why is Utkin-Vagner take pictures with Putin?” We know the answer without a Foreign Ministry. ” “It remains only to find out how many people actually died and when the country's top leadership of the country has nothing to do with this,” the politician added.
What happened
On February 8, on February 8, the American television channel was the first to announce the air at the USA of the International Coalition for the Syrian Government Forces on the Northeast of Syria with reference to a Pentagon source. According to him, the Syrian troops in the province of Deir ez-Zor attacked the headquarters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF-Syrian-Kurdish formations supported by the United States), in response to which the coalition struck them on February 7.
“They recognized the mercenaries - once. The corpses were recognized - two. We moved to the next line of defense-only 5 people. It remains only to find out how many people actually died and when the country's top leadership of the country has nothing to do with this. ”
According to the Syrian state channels, as a result of the coalition, dozens of people died or were injured. A source of CBS at the same time said that among the government forces that were hit were also “Russian mercenaries”. If one of them really died in the attack of coalition forces, then this is the first case during the Syrian conflict, when Russian citizens died under the American airstrike, the channel noted.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in a statement of February 8 emphasized that there are no Russian military personnel in this area Deir ez-Zor. According to the ministry, one of the divisions of the People’s militia of the pro-government forces, which conducted an intelligence and search operation in order to detect terrorists, was subjected to the air strike. At this time, the militias were subjected to sudden shelling from mortars and MLRS, after which the air coalition was inflicted on them, as a result of which 25 Syrians were injured.
A different version is put forward in the Pentagon: pro -government forces tried to capture the nearby oil field. The Russian media adhere to this version, including MK and Kommersant. According to the Russian military source of Kommersant , the cause of the incident in Deir ez-Zor was an attempt to “local large entrepreneurs who currently support Bashar al-Assad” to seize oil and gas fields under the control of the Kurds supported by the United States.
The interlocutor NT, close to the leadership of the State Duma Committee, also agree with such a tractova: according to him, the fighters of the PMC from Russia, who are fighting there, without agreeing on this operation with the military command of the Russian group in Syria, participated in the “attempt to squeeze” the deposit of the Kurds.
Who was hit
According to US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, commenting on the incident, the SDF headquarters attacked a squad of government forces of approximately 300 tanks with tanks and artillery. As he said, American forces contacted the Russian forces, but they said that there were no Russian troops in this region.
According to the interlocutor NT, the fighters of the PMC from Russia, who are fighting there, without agreeing on this operation with the military command of the Russian group in Syria, participated in the “attempt to squeeze” the deposit of the Kurds
On February 9, a group of independent Activists of Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) said that fighters of the so-called PMC of Vagner, who were not existing de jure of a private military company, who fought on the side of the self-proclaimed republics of the DPR and the LPR during the conflict in the Donbass, and now also take part in the US Air Force. Syrian war on the side of government forces.
The Russian Ministry of Defense is rejected from the activities of this PMC, however, the fact that the “Wagnerians” are really fighting in Syria has repeatedly been reported in the media and social networks. The NT source, close to the Wagner PMC, said that last spring, the Wagnerians controlled the road leading from Beirut to Damascus and ensured security on it.
According to CIT, the fighters of the Wagner PMC operate at the deposits of minerals in the Euphrates Valley (it was in the area that a air jacket was applied). Last year, the Fontanka publication reported that the employees of the Europolis PMC , affiliated with the Vagner PMC, entered into a contract with the Syrian government on the liberation and subsequent operation of Syria oil and gas resources.
According to Kommersant, pro -government tribal formations moved to the offensive with the aim of capturing oil and gas fields, as well as the so -called detachments of hunters to the Islamic State* (ISIS Hunters), reinforced by the fighters of the Wagner PMC, went in the second echelon. As a result, both of them were subjected to shelling, and then the coalition aircraft.
The writer and leader of the National Bolsheviks Eduard Limonov interprets this story in his blog differently: he notes that volunteers from Russia were really heading to oil and gas fields, but they did not reach due to betrayal. “The fighters were all fired through the wars, professionals. But against betrayal and professionals are powerless. How many people have died is still hard to say, ”writes Limonov.
He emphasizes that the Russian authorities did not send them there, but the Kremlin still in this situation suffers undoubted reputation damage. “That's why they went into a dull protection. The authorities did not direct them under fire. Some of his own betrayed them, ”concluded Limonov.
What is known about the dead
Data on the victims as a result of the air raid vary greatly. According to Kommersant, a detachment of Wagnerians, which was shelling, totaled about 600 people. As a result of the blow, 11 of them died, the military source of the newspaper claims.
Reuters reported that more than 100 “pro -Assad fighters” were killed as a result of the attack, two of whom were from Russia. Bloomberg wrote about a hundred dead Russians.
The Russian authorities did not send them there, but the Kremlin still in this situation suffers undoubted reputation damage, Limonov believes. “That's why they went into a dull protection. The authorities did not direct them under fire. One of his own betrayed them, ”concludes the leader of the National
On February 12, CIT activists called the names of the four fighters of the Wagner PMC, who died at the coalition of the coalition on February 7: Alexey Ladygin from Ryazan, Stanislav Matveev and Igor Kosoturov from the city of Asbestos of the Sverdlovsk Region and Vladimir Loginov. According to CIT, Ladygin and Kosoturov used to fought in the Donbass, and Loginov was an active participant in the Cossack movement.
According to Limonov, the National Bolsheviks Kirill Ananiev also died, the other National Bolsheviks disappeared and does not get in touch.
The death of the above was confirmed by friends and relatives. As the cousin of Matveev Igor Patsko told RBC, the family was not informed of the exact cause of death, and relatives are waiting for whether the body of the deceased would deliver to their homeland.
Loginov died in Syria at air air
Coalitions headed by the United States Photo: Kazak39.com
The death of Cossack hundred Loginov was confirmed by the Baltic Separate Cossack District Society. “The centurion Vladimir died in an unequal battle on February 7, 2018, in the area of the Syrian Deir-Ez-Zor,” the Cossack society said in a statement.
On February 14, CIT called the names of three more Russians who allegedly died on February 7: this is Alexey Shikhov about the nickname Cadet from Nizhny Novgorod, born in 1991, Ruslan Gavrilov from the village of Kedrovoy, the Sverdlovsk region and a member of the Organization of Trudynin, Vladimir Sorpravnaya, the apostle (his last name is unknown).
Thus, at least 11 dead have already been identified. NT interlocutors, close to the leadership of the State Duma and the presidential administration, are not called accurate numbers, but they believe that we are talking about large losses, otherwise this story would not have such a resonance.
* Organization prohibited in Russia as a terrorist