Shooting of a Wagner PMC column in Syria. Slaughter for oil. What is known about the shooting by Americans of a Russian convoy in Syria The Americans shot a Russian convoy in Syria
For several days the public has been wondering what happened to the Russian private military company Wagner, which is rumored to have suffered heavy losses in Syria. Information about the massacre at the official level is extremely scarce and closed. Both the United States and Russia admit that a conflict situation took place. However, both sides are silent about the presence of Russians on the battlefield. However, scraps of information about the death of soldiers from the Russian Federation near the village of Khsham in Syria have already begun to leak into those Russian media that are quite loyal to the Kremlin. The only question is the number of deaths and the very facts of the battle. What fight are we talking about?
What kind of battle was it and how many Russians actually died in it.
On the night of February 8, a battle took place near the village of Khsham in the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor. The settlement lies on the border between US-backed Kurds and Assad government forces.
The sides are separated by the Euphrates River - the Syrians are entrenched on the western bank, and the Kurds are on the eastern bank, forming the backbone of the Free Syrian Army, which is in opposition to Damascus, and is supported by the Americans.
According to Russia, Islamic State detachments are based in the same area.
The parties shift the blame for the conflict onto each other. The US says that Assad's forces launched an attack on the Kurdish headquarters where American advisers were located. They requested contact with the Russian military, who stated that “they are not there” and they are not conducting any operations in the area.
Then American aviation was called in and defeated the advancing forces “in an open field.” It is reported that the US military notified the Russian side in advance of plans to strike. Russia did not deny this.
In the American media, the most complete reconstruction of the events was made by The Washington Post.
From the commentary of the Kurdish general Hassan, it follows that on the night of February 7-8, a pro-Assad column with tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and trucks advanced in the direction of the Conoco oil and gas field. At about 10 p.m. the enemy opened fire from tanks and artillery pieces. The shells exploded “about 450 meters from the positions occupied by the Syrian Democratic Forces (Syrian Democratic Forces - ed.) and American soldiers.”
According to Hasan, US Air Force attack aircraft, fighters and drones were forced to attack the attackers. The battle ended at approximately 5.30 am.
The coalition attack included an AC-130 attack aircraft and an Ah-64 Apache helicopter, F-15 fighter jets and drones, as well as artillery batteries.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the picture is completely different. The Americans carried out an air raid on a detachment of Syrian militias who were conducting an operation against an ISIS sleeper cell in the area of the former Al-Isba oil refinery.
At the same time, the department emphasized that the militias that came under attack from the coalition did not coordinate their operation with the command of the Russian task force. No complaints were made against the United States.
So were they Russians or not?
As the Kremlin later stated, Russian military personnel did not participate in the operation.
“As you know, in this case we are operating with data that concerns military personnel of the armed forces of the Russian Federation who are taking part in the operation of the armed forces, the Russian Aerospace Forces in support of the Syrian army. We do not have data about other Russians who may be in Syria ", said Russian Presidential Speaker Dmitry Peskov.
Even the United States is not officially sure that it was the Russians who were bombed.
US Defense Secretary James Mattis said he does not have accurate information that Russian PMC employees were killed during an airstrike against Assad's forces.
"We're even coordinating ground operations on each side," Mattis said. According to him, Russian troops were not among the Syrian forces that came under coalition fire near Hisham.
“The Russians told us at that time that their forces were not there,” said the head of the Pentagon.
"The fact is that someone decided to attack us, and the Russians said that it was not about them. (...) You cannot ask Russia to prevent a conflict in a case where it does not control something, it could not be implemented," Mattis said.
Pentagon statement on airstrike. Not a word about the Russians
He also added that the Euphrates River has long been used as a demarcation line between US and opposition forces, as well as Russian and Syrian government forces. "The Russians have always responded to our signals, we have always responded. That line has never been broken," Mattis added.
He also suggested that Hsham did not have contract soldiers or employees of Russian private military companies. “I think the Russians would have told us,” Mattis said. However, he cautioned that he did not have completely accurate information on this matter.
Nevertheless, reports of the death of soldiers from the Russian PMC Wagner continue to arrive. The participation of these particular fighters in this battle was first reported on the telegram channel of the Conflict Intelligence Team community and on the VK page of Igor Girkin (Strelkov), who for some time commanded the “DPR army.”
No one has yet officially denied this information. Meanwhile, the first names of the dead “private traders” have already appeared.
What they say about losses
At the moment, there have already been five names of soldiers who served with Wagner and allegedly died in the battle near Khsham.
Alexey Ladygin from Ryazan
Vladimir Loginov from Kaliningrad
Stanislav Matveev from Asbest, Sverdlovsk region
Igor Kosoturov, Asbest
Kirill Ananyev from the "Other Russia" party
A number of local Russian media wrote about their deaths, acquaintances and relatives of the victims, as well as public organizations (for example, Cossacks) reported on social networks.
These names are also cited by the Russian Komsomolskaya Pravda, which added one more dead - a Ukrainian. According to the publication, a native of Slavyansk, who since 2014 took part in the battles in Donbass on the part of the separatists, has already been buried in Rostov. And in 2016 he signed a contract with PMC.
RBC conducted several interviews with relatives of the victims.
If we talk about total losses, then the data here is based solely on rumors and varies depending on the source of information.
The American television channel CNBC was the first to report the losses of the Russians, which cited a source in the Pentagon and announced the death of several hundred attackers, including mercenaries from the Russian Federation.
Bloomberg claims the death of 200 Russians - and also citing sources. True, he then cites data from an official from the Pentagon, who speaks of a hundred dead in total (including Syrians) and 200 wounded.
The statement of Kurdish General Hassan in an interview with WP also correlates with this version. He claims that about a hundred attackers were killed. And among them “several Russians, probably from among the mercenaries fighting alongside the forces supporting the Syrian regime.”
Battle for the oil refinery
One of the main unofficial reasons for the failed military operation is an attempt to take control of the Conoco oil refinery and field. The Russian press has already recognized this.
As Komsomolskaya Pravda writes, “considering that the Kurdish forces had occupied a large oil plant on the left bank of the Euphrates without serious reasons, the pro-Assad forces decided to try to recapture it. The calculation was that, having seen impressive forces, the Kurds would not resist and will retreat."
According to Kommersant, the “blitzkrieg” did not work out: “The calculation was that after the artillery shelling, ours would quickly take this plant by storm, the Kurds would throw down their weapons. And the Americans would no longer hit their own when close combat broke out. But by the beginning of the fighting Only half of the detachment managed to deploy in combat formation,” one of the Wagner fighters told the publication.
“They just crushed us,” a Komsomolskaya Pravda source in the PMC reported about the consequences of this hitch. “First artillery, then helicopters... The dead, of course, are not 600 or 200. But American statistics are very close to reality (we were talking about 100 dead Syrians and Russians - ed.).
Surely they saw that we were preparing for an assault on our bridgehead on the left bank. It is no coincidence that the crossing of the Euphrates was flooded the other day through the release of water in the locks. Help would not have come to us even hypothetically. As a result, the 5th assault detachment was almost completely destroyed, burned along with its equipment."
Social networks believe that the “private fighters” went into battle without proper air cover. And they explain this by saying that the attack really was not coordinated with the official military command of the Russian Federation - otherwise there would have been two or three fighters nearby.
According to the Russian military source of Kommersant, the cause of the incident in the province of Deir ez-Zor in the north of the country was an attempt by local “large businessmen who currently support Bashar al-Assad” to seize oil and gas fields controlled by the Kurds, allies of the United States.
“For this purpose, pro-government tribal formations went on the offensive, and the so-called ISIS Hunters, reinforced by fighters from the Wagner PMC, went in the second echelon. Both were hit by the American Air Force and shelled,” the publication writes. .
Kommersant's interlocutor claims that the Russian command in Syria did not give permission to carry out an offensive operation on the oil fields, which was perceived as a “dangerous amateur activity.”
Why did Trump call Putin?
The situation surrounding the unsuccessful attack by the Syrians and Russians on the positions of pro-American forces has brought considerable tension into relations between Washington and Moscow.
Usually, unfriendly actions in Syria quite quickly (by military standards) provoke a response from the “offended” side.
It is interesting that it was the Americans who immediately tried to relieve this tension. First, the tone of the Pentagon and Mattis was conciliatory and non-confrontational. The US has said several times that it consulted with the Russians before launching the strike.
Secondly, the seriousness of the situation is evidenced by Donald Trump’s call to Vladimir Putin on February 12. Formally, Trump decided to express condolences over the An-148 crash. Negotiations on the Syrian topic were not officially announced, however, the very fact of the call coincided with the growing excitement around the massacre near Deir Ezzor.
It is possible that the plane crash was only a pretext for a personal connection between the presidents, without which this call could have been misinterpreted by the Kremlingate lobbyists in the United States.
What is known about PMC "Wagner"
Officially, this unit does not exist in nature, but the media write about this “private army” as a fait accompli.
The PMC is associated with the Slavic Brigade, which fought in Syria back in 2013. In 2014-2015, the PMC operated on the territory of the “LDPR”. And then she appeared again in Syria.
The commander of the PMC is called a professional military man, reserve lieutenant colonel Dmitry Utkin, who had the combat call sign “Wagner”. By the way, Utkin is a native of the Kirovograd region. And, as it turned out, in the summer of 2016, he came to visit his relatives in Ukraine quite legally.
The dual power that emerged in Chechnya in 1991, which declared itself a sovereign republic, led to confrontation with the federal government and internal conflicts in the struggle for power, which ended with the introduction of Russian troops in December 1994. This is how not all of the country’s military leadership wanted to participate. But if the generals could resign and avoid being sent to the North Caucasus, then conscript soldiers and junior officers simply had no choice. In a hurry, the regiments were completed and sent to carry out combat missions in Chechnya. The 245th, which lost a significant part of its personnel during the hostilities, did not escape this fate. The most dramatic battle was the battle near the village of Yaryshmardy on April 16, 1996, which took place exactly twenty years ago.
245th SME
The 245th Regiment has the rank of Guards for its heroic history during the Great Patriotic War. Stationed in the Nizhny Novgorod region, during the ten days of January 1995 after the failed operation of the federal forces to capture Grozny, it began to be actively replenished with conscripts under wartime conditions. Its contingent grew 10 times and amounted to 1,700 people due to recruitment from the KDVO (Red Banner Far Eastern Military District). In addition to recruits, volunteers who had not undergone the necessary training were also called up. On the eve of entering Chechnya, the fighters did not have a single joint exercise to practice interaction.
If we take into account that already in the North Caucasus the regiment would change 4 sets of officers, using its example it becomes clear that the army was not prepared to participate in the First Chechen Campaign and was doomed to losses. Only those killed at 245 SMEs will amount to 220 people, including the son of Lieutenant General Pulikovsky (December 1995) and those guys who laid down their lives during another 20 military operations. The bloodiest battle was near the village of Yashmardy, which caused a huge public outcry.
In the war zone
The 245th SME was always in the forefront, participating in the assault on Prigorodny (Grozny), Goysky, Vedeno, Arktan-Yurt, Shatoy and Goth. Since the spring of 1995, the regiment settled near Shatoy, guarding roads and manning checkpoints. The fighters accompanied transport columns carrying fuel, food and civilians. Starting in February 1995, after the encirclement and blocking of Dudayev’s main troops in the “South-East” group of troops, strange events related to concessions to the separatists began to occur more and more often.
During the operation to capture Shatoy in June 1995, a column of the 245th regiment was ambushed near the village of Zone in the Argun Gorge. This happened due to the carelessness of the leadership and the lack of foot reconnaissance. Despite the losses, this fact remained almost unnoticed in the general rejoicing associated with the capture of Shatoy. But this was the first bell to a tragedy that went down in history as the Battle of Yaryshmarda. On March 31, 1996, a column of paratroopers was shot at the village of Benoy, heading to Vedeno, but this did not prompt the command to increase security measures when passing through the gorge.
What preceded the April events
On April 4, the administration of the village of Yaryshmardy signed a peace treaty with federal troops, which imposed a ban on military operations in the area. Based on a document from the chief of staff of the 324th MRR, under whose control the section of the road to Shatoi was located, a checkpoint was removed 500 meters from the village. The regiment commander was not informed.
The battle at Yaryshmarda will take place in the context of an order from the Minister of Defense on the use of artillery only in case of self-defense and a complete renunciation of the participation of aviation on the territory of Chechnya. He arrived through secret communication channels about ten days before the column left Khankala.
Shot column
The central base of the 245th SME prepared a convoy to Shatoy, the purpose of which was to deliver material and technical means, fuel and young reinforcements to the military unit. Those demobilized and sent home for family reasons joined the column. There is information that there were also soldiers’ mothers looking for their missing children. From Goisky, they were joined by 4 vehicles of the 324th SME. The rear column under the command of Major Terzovets left on April 15, immediately after the Easter celebration. After spending the night in Khankala, by the middle of the next day, cars and military equipment passed Dacha-Borzoi and Yaryshmardy, stretching for 1.5-2 km. Ahead there was a narrow mountain serpentine, commonly called “mother-in-law’s tongue.”
The reconnaissance controlled artillery spotter maintained contact with the 324th MRR, and that was all that was done to protect people and military equipment. The battle at Yaryshmarda was filmed by the militants themselves, whose material became public. Against the background of birdsong and conversations of the detachment of Jordanian Khattab and Ruslan Gelayev, the hum of cars can be heard. You can see from behind the branches from the cliff how a tented Ural, a tanker, and an armored personnel carrier appear. The distance between cars is about 20 meters. And suddenly the silence is broken by explosions, and then gunfire. With heavy fire from above, invisible behind the greenery and a curtain of smoke, the militants shoot at point-blank range the Russian column. The time recorded on the video is 13 hours 23 minutes. These are the minutes when the battle at Yaryshmarda began.
Battle scheme
The presented diagram shows that the militants deliberately waited for the convoy, having equipped up to 20 points for a fire strike. Trenches were specially dug in the rocks, which is a very labor-intensive task. All locations of the Khattab and Gelayev gang are equipped with a sufficient number of weapons. They are located on both sides, which allows you to shoot through all sections of the path. Radio-controlled landmines are installed on the road in the direction of traffic. The location for the attack is ideally chosen due to the curve that hides the lead transport from the tail of the column. The road in this area is so narrow that it is impossible for tankers or trucks to turn around to leave the battlefield.
On the left is an almost vertical cliff, on the right is a cliff about five meters high, under which the Argun River flows. During heavy fire, some soldiers managed to jump into a dry river. Those who did not crash during the fall were finished off by snipers, which excluded the possibility of escape. The trap for the transport column slammed shut when the leading tank was blown up by a landmine and an explosion was heard at the end of the procession. The bandits hit the target accurately, shooting the infantry fighting vehicles and BRDMs leading the column in the first minutes of the battle. Senior Major Terezovets, a radio operator and an artillery spotter were killed. The company of the 245th SME found itself without communication with the outside world (jamming was specially placed in the VHF range), without control and support from artillery and aviation. The battle at Yaryshmarda turned into a real massacre for Russian soldiers and officers.
1996: tragic events through the eyes of eyewitnesses
According to the 245th MRR, during the bloody events, 73 people were killed, 52 were injured, 6 infantry fighting vehicles, 1 BRDM, and 11 vehicles were destroyed. Komsomolskaya Pravda published an article indicating 95 dead, including those demobilized and those who joined the convoy, whose presence was not officially recorded by anyone. This is easy to believe, because the mother of the deceased machine gunner Oleg Ogoreltsev, one of those demobilized, had to search for her son in Chechnya for a month and she was able to identify the corpse in Rostov only after meeting with the surviving participants in the dramatic events. 30 bodies were taken from the battlefield without the possibility of identification: the guys burned like torches after direct hits from grenade launchers on tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. What do eyewitnesses say about the battle at Yaryshmarda?
Sniper Denis Tsiryulnik, a contract soldier, says that after the smoke cleared, the surviving soldiers resisted until the last bullet in conditions of almost zero visibility. After the battle, seven corpses of militants - residents of the Shatoi region - will be found. Only at 6 o’clock in the evening did Miroshnichenko’s armored group and the 324th MRP, as well as a battered reconnaissance detachment, make their way to the column. By this time, the Chechens and Arab mercenaries participating in Khattab’s gang had already fled. Only one question was asked: why did help come so late? The lead BRDM resisted to the last, the guys could have survived. To which the answer came: the regiment command was waiting for instructions from above, and the groups began to break through to help only at four o’clock. The helicopters flew up and hit the mountains, artillery fired, but there were no militants on the slopes.
Igor Izotov, who was in the third truck, said that those who survived were those who managed to squeeze into the space between the front infantry fighting vehicle and the rocks, which became the only dead zone for the enemy. Snipers pulled the guys out from under the cars, shooting them with ricochets on the asphalt.
The wounded Sergei Cherchik recalls that, despite the fire, there was mutual assistance between the soldiers. He, wounded by shrapnel, was pulled out from under the car by a contract soldier, and when he himself was hit in the kneecap, the two of them were saved by a conscript soldier.
Eternal memory to the dead
The fact that the convoy was expected and Khattab had complete information about its composition is evidenced by the fact that the most important vehicles were hit by landmines and grenade launchers. The medical car remained untouched. The wounded were gathered into it, and the bodies of the dead were laid on the armor. When the MTLB began to turn around, its wheels hovered over the cliff. The driver miraculously managed to straighten the car, but the bodies of the already dead guys fell into the Argun. All morning on the 17th they cleared the road, finding seven more unexploded landmines. They threw burnt trucks off the cliff and searched for the soldiers' belongings and personal numbers. Thus ended the almost four-hour battle at Yaryshmarda.
The list of the dead 245 SMEs includes 11 officers, including artillery spotter Captain Vyatkin, who met death in the first minutes of the battle, Captain Lakhin, Major Milovanov, 2 warrant officers and 27 soldiers and sergeants. Among them, 8 33 remained unidentified, and for a long time their names, like the machine gunner Ogoreltsev, were established with the help of parents and relatives. A book of memory is posted on the website of 245 SMEs, and a monument to those who fulfilled their task at the cost of their lives was erected in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Official investigation
The mass death of personnel of 245 SMEs became the subject of an official investigation, as a result of which the prosecutor’s office spoke in the State Duma, not seeing any corpus delicti in the actions of the officials. Rokhlin accused the country's leadership and the Ministry of Defense of not controlling the situation in Chechnya and allowing the manifestation of carelessness that led to the death of the military. He pointed to a lack of vigilance, tactical illiteracy and lack of coordination between the 245th and 324th MRR. But no one, including the regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel Romanikhin, was punished for the dramatic battle at Yaryshmarda.
20 years later
On May 5, 1996, the first article appeared on the pages of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper about the tragedy with the column of the 245th SME, which on the sidelines immediately began to be called sold. In a video message, Khattab openly talks about the corruption of some high-ranking officers. But you cannot trust him; a thorough judicial investigation is necessary, which should answer the question of the reasons for the terrible coincidences and the mass death of soldiers. But to date, such a trial has not been carried out. One of the mysteries of the First Chechen War remains the April battle at Yaryshmarda. Military secrets have been carefully guarded since those times when participants in the events were strictly forbidden to convey details of the terrible tragedy to everyone, including journalists. Today their memoirs have been published, but they do not answer the main question: why is the command not responsible for the lives of its soldiers?..
For several days the public has been wondering what happened to the Russian private military company Wagner, which is rumored to have suffered heavy losses in Syria.
Information about the massacre at the official level is extremely scarce and closed. Both the United States and Russia admit that a conflict situation took place. However, both sides are silent about the presence of Russians on the battlefield.
However, scraps of information about the death of soldiers from the Russian Federation near the village of Khsham in Syria have already begun to leak into those Russian media that are quite loyal to the Kremlin.
The only question is the number of deaths and the very facts of the battle.
What fight are we talking about?
On the night of February 8, a battle took place near the village of Khsham in the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor. The settlement lies on the border between US-backed Kurds and Assad government forces.
The sides are separated by the Euphrates River - the Syrians are entrenched on the western bank, and the Kurds are on the eastern bank, forming the backbone of the Free Syrian Army, which is in opposition to Damascus, and is supported by the Americans.
According to Russia, “Islamic State” detachments are based in the same area.
The parties shift the blame for the conflict onto each other. The US says that Assad's forces launched an attack on the Kurdish headquarters where American advisers were located. They requested contact with the Russian military, who stated that “they are not there” and they are not conducting any operations in the area.
Then American aviation was called in and defeated the advancing forces “in the open field.” It is reported that the US military notified the Russian side in advance of plans to strike. Russia did not deny this.
In the American media, the most complete reconstruction of the events was made by The Washington Post.
From the commentary of the Kurdish general Hassan, it follows that on the night of February 7-8, a pro-Assad column with tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and trucks advanced in the direction of the Conoco oil and gas field. At about 10 p.m. the enemy opened fire from tanks and artillery pieces. The shells exploded “about 450 meters from the positions occupied by the Syrian Democratic Forces (Syrian Democratic Forces - ed.) and American soldiers.”
According to Hasan, US Air Force attack aircraft, fighters and drones were forced to attack the attackers. The battle ended at approximately 5.30 am.
The coalition attack included an AC-130 attack aircraft and an Ah-64 Apache helicopter, F-15 fighter jets and drones, as well as artillery batteries.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the picture is completely different. The Americans carried out an air raid on a detachment of Syrian militias who were conducting an operation against an ISIS sleeper cell in the area of the former Al-Isba oil refinery.
At the same time, the department emphasized that the militias that came under attack from the coalition did not coordinate their operation with the command of the Russian task force. No complaints were made against the United States.
So were they Russians or not?
As the Kremlin later stated, Russian military personnel did not participate in the operation.
“As you know, in this case we are operating with the data that concerns military personnel of the armed forces of the Russian Federation who are taking part in the operation of the armed forces, the Russian Aerospace Forces in support of the Syrian army. We do not have information about other Russians who may be in Syria,” said Russian Presidential Speaker Dmitry Peskov.
Even the USA is not officially sure that it was the Russians who were bombed.
US Defense Secretary James Mattis said he does not have accurate information that Russian PMC employees were killed during an airstrike against Assad's forces.
“We're even coordinating ground operations on each side,” Mattis said. According to him, Russian troops were not among the Syrian forces that came under coalition fire near Hisham.
“The Russians told us at that time that their forces were not there,” said the head of the Pentagon.
“The fact is that someone decided to attack us, and the Russians said that it was not about them. (...) You cannot ask Russia to prevent a conflict in a case where it does not control something; this could not be done,” Mattis said.
Pentagon statement on airstrike. Not a word about the Russians
He also added that the Euphrates River has long been used as a demarcation line between US and opposition forces, as well as Russian and Syrian government forces. “The Russians always responded to our signals, we always responded. That line has never been broken,” Mattis added.
He also suggested that Hsham did not have contract soldiers or employees of Russian private military companies. “I think the Russians would have told us,” Mattis said. However, he cautioned that he did not have completely accurate information on this matter.
Nevertheless, reports of the death of soldiers from the Russian PMC Wagner continue to arrive. The participation of these particular fighters in this battle was first reported on the telegram channel of the Conflict Intelligence Team community and on the VK page of Igor Girkin (Strelkov), who for some time commanded the “DPR army.”
No one has yet officially denied this information. Meanwhile, the first names of the dead “private traders” have already appeared.
What they say about losses
At the moment, there have already been five names of soldiers who served with Wagner and allegedly died in the battle near Khsham.
Alexey Ladygin from Ryazan - Vladimir Loginov from Kaliningrad
Stanislav Matveev from Asbest, Sverdlovsk region
Igor Kosoturov, Asbest
Kirill Ananyev from the “Other Russia” party
A number of local Russian media wrote about their deaths, acquaintances and relatives of the victims, as well as public organizations (for example, Cossacks) reported on social networks.
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These names are also cited by the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, which added one more dead - a Ukrainian. According to the publication, a native of Slavyansk, who since 2014 took part in the battles in Donbass on the part of the separatists, has already been buried in Rostov. And in 2016 he signed a contract with PMC.
In contact with
Classmates
As some media outlets note, Russian fighters of the Wagner PMC were attacked by American artillery and aircraft, avenging the death of US military advisers in the Idlib region.
The Wagner private military company suffered significant losses in Syria due to the actions of American artillery and aviation, which covered the ground units of its Kurdish allies, several media outlets reported on the Internet on February 9. Data on PMC losses, as usual, are contradictory.
It all started with the fact that the American television channel CBS, citing an anonymous Pentagon representative, reported that the troops of the international coalition led by America on February 7 dealt a powerful blow to pro-government troops in Syria. This incident, according to the TV channel, was “the first time that Russians were killed due to an American airstrike in Syria.” There have been no official comments from America.
At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that militias supporting the Syrian authorities came under fire from the coalition in the province of Deir ez-Zor due to actions that were not coordinated with the Russian military. The department said that there were no Russian military personnel in the strike area.
The next day, February 10, information appeared in the media with a link to one of the Telegram channels, which published 4 audio recordings at once, as well as a transcript of negotiations between witnesses to the American attack. From the negotiations it becomes clear that the Wagner PMC column was first subjected to artillery and then to an air strike. Because of this, hundreds of soldiers seem to have died.
“There were Pindos (Americans)... First they covered us with artillery (artillery), then they raised 4 turntables (helicopters) and launched them into the carousel from heavy machine guns... Ours had nothing besides machine guns. In general, they created hell there. The Pindos knew specifically and clearly that it was us who were coming, our Russians were coming to take over the plant, and they were sitting at this plant... There were a lot of people who disappeared without a trace,” one entry says.
The second recording says that almost 200 people were killed.
“Brother, look. There were 177 killed - only the 5th company. The deuce almost didn't catch on. In short, the entire 5th was liquidated, they were crushed there by aviation, helicopters, artillery, and the Kurds and the Americans trampled on them, the boys simply had no chance, almost all of the 5th fell,” notes the voice of the unknown.
From the third recording it becomes clear that before the attack, the United States raised its flag and shot the column heading towards them. The voice on the tape marvels at “what the Russians were hoping for.”
“As for the equipment, he reports, one tank and one BRDM survived, and all the other “mess”, all the other tanks were destroyed immediately in the first minutes of the battle,” states the unknown person.
Information appeared that the battle was fought over the Koneko oil field, which became the target of government troops. The facility was most likely supported by a Russian PMC. The figure was announced at 100 people.
“Despite the fact that it is physically controlled by the SDF, the sheikh of the local tribe promised to give it for use to the Syrian government (and most likely, to one of the Syrian entrepreneurs personally). The result of this agreement was an attack by the Syrian Arab Army,” the media reports.
There is unofficial confirmation of the fact of a clash between Russian mercenaries and US troops in Syria from the lawyer of the International Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, Alexander Ionov. He also, as in the original audio recordings, voices the figure of 200 people.
“According to my sources, more than two hundred people died. The exact number of those killed will be determined within a few days; negotiations are underway regarding their presence in this corridor. The column was attacked on the march. It is not entirely clear what goals and objectives the representatives of the “Wagner Company” had when they were gathering their units for the march towards the Euphrates,” Ionov said.
An approximate picture of what happened has also emerged.
“After talking with the Syrian military, we realized that our fighters were under heavy fire from artillery installations that were covering pro-American Kurdish units. Then 2 American Air Force helicopters launched a missile and bomb attack on those who had taken refuge behind the ruins. People were simply finished off,” says the expert.
Alexander Ionov admits that the strike was the Pentagon’s revenge for the death of US military advisers in the Idlib region, which occurred as a result of a retaliation strike by the Russian Aerospace Forces after the heroic death of the Su-25 attack aircraft pilot Roman Filipov.
“During the attack on our plane in Idlib, the Russian side responded with air strikes against militant concentration points. There were probably American military advisers at these points. Apparently, they were among the 30 people whom ours put down. And here, probably, the Americans showed integrity, decided to take revenge and struck, but not against units and formations of regular Russian troops, but against their allies - the Wagner PMC and militias of Syrian origin,” Ionov noted.
However, there are those who admit that the losses of Russian volunteers due to the American strike in Syria are greatly exaggerated. Most of them were killed while traveling in the truck. Ataman of the Baltic Separate Cossack District Maxim Buga spoke about this. He refers to messages from fighters who continue to operate in the SAR.
On February 12, information appeared on the Internet that Kaliningrad Cossack Vladimir Loginov had died in Syria due to an attack. Buga confirmed this fact. He clarified that this happened due to a coalition strike. But the ataman refutes information about hundreds of victims among volunteers. As he notes, 15-20 people were killed, approximately 50 more were injured.
Ataman said that each participant in the clashes has his own vision of events, “the general has his own, the person on the front line has his own,” hence the difference in information about the dead.
“Because of this, different information came out. One said it was during the offensive, the other said it was during the movement. Most of the people died while they were driving a KamAZ truck,” Buga clarified.
As he notes, the strike was carried out, according to him, either by a missile from a helicopter, or by artillery, and the helicopter directed it. Ataman did not name the organization that includes volunteers in Syria. Now there are approximately 10 Kaliningrad Cossacks remaining in the SAR. There may be more immigrants from the region, since people of “different political convictions” go there.
A group of independent investigators, the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), announced the names of 4 Russian fighters from the Wagner PMC who died as a result of an airstrike by a coalition led by America. Experts note that the dead are Alexey Ladygin from Ryazan, Stanislav Matveev and Igor Kosoturov from the city of Asbest, Sverdlovsk region, and Vladimir Loginov.
According to CIT, Ladygin and Kosoturov previously fought in the Donbass, and Loginov was an active participant in the Cossack movement. But experts add that it is currently impossible to name the exact number of dead Wagner PMC fighters.
During the First Chechen War, many dramatic events occurred, as a result of which many Russian soldiers died an absurd and terrible death, suffered, and were mutilated physically and spiritually. Analyzing known facts and eyewitness accounts, as well as seeing the measures taken by the leaders of our country and the armed forces, it becomes very difficult to convince oneself that the main blame for what happened in those days does not lie on their conscience.
In the early spring of 1996, two major defeats of Russian troops occurred almost simultaneously. On March 31, in the Nozhai-Yurt region of Chechnya, near the village of Benoy, a column of paratroopers from the 104th division marching to the administrative center of Vedeno was shot. There were many killed and even more wounded soldiers. It seemed that the army command would draw the appropriate conclusions... But already on April 16, the militants struck a new blow, which again turned out to be extremely successful for them. In the Grozny region of Chechnya, north of the village of Yarysh-Mardy, Shatoi bandits attacked a column of the 245th motorized rifle regiment. The battle, or rather the massacre, the massacre, lasted about four hours, until Khattab and Gelayev and their people left their positions without hindrance. The terrorists filmed the results of the battle. It can still be found on the Internet today.
Departing from the usual article format, we will try to convey the madness and chaos that happened that day in the words of eyewitnesses...
Having celebrated Easter on April 14, at the central base of the 245th motorized rifle regiment they organized another column to Shatoy. She was supposed to bring young recruits, as well as logistics for the needs of the military unit. On Monday, April 15, the convoy reached Khankala without interference and stopped there for the night. That same night, approaching militant groups organized an ambush near the village of Yarysh-Mardy. Over a two-kilometer stretch along the highway, they built more than twenty firing positions. Ammunition warehouses have been prepared and mines have been laid on the road. The number of Chechen separatists, according to various estimates, ranged from eighty to one hundred and sixty people.
On Tuesday morning, the federal forces that advanced from Khankala carried out the established measures during the movement of the column. The reconnaissance company kept an eye on the Argun Gorge, and the artillerymen established contact with their brothers from the 324th regiment. After this, the column set off.
From the memoirs of sniper Denis Tsiryulnik: “We had one sign - if there are men, women and children on the road, then everything is in order. If there are only women, then expect an ambush. So that day we came across only women and children.”
Having passed the settlement of Dachu-Borzoi, at around two o'clock in the afternoon local time, the column reached the village of Yarysh-Mardy, stretching out on a narrow mountain serpentine. The length of the column, as it turned out later, was almost one and a half kilometers. When the first shots sounded, its head disappeared around the next bend in the road, and the rear passed the bridge over the bed of the narrow Argun River.
Denis Tsiryulnik: “We were driving, telling jokes. Everyone was calm. And then somewhere in front of the column there was an explosion. We saw a tank turret thrown up from behind a hill. Then a second explosion occurred. The third was already in front of our pourer. (A tanker is a fuel truck. In a convoy, tankers have always been the main target of militants. Driving a tanker was considered one of the most heroic professions. Hereinafter, the author’s notes). The explosion tore off the hood and knocked out the windows. I was concussed and got entangled in the door handles. When I managed to get out of the cab, I immediately ran about fifteen meters away, found some hole in the side of the road and shoved my butt into it. The fire was very dense. When the first shock passed, I began to observe how things were.”
It all started when the tank leading the convoy, equipped with a trawl, was blown up by a mine of enormous power, equipped with a remote control. Another landmine was later found at the tail of the column, but fortunately it did not go off. In total, seven unexploded landmines were discovered on the route from the site of the attack to Shatoi the next day. As soon as the tank was neutralized, the militants hiding on both sides of the gorge opened fire. Submachine gunners, machine gunners and snipers hit the column. Grenades and mines were thrown at our soldiers. The tank walking at the tail of the column received several hits from a grenade launcher. But only after the tower was breached did he begin to retreat, backing up. Thus, he managed to get out of the battle.
According to senior sergeant Igor Izotov: “I was in the third truck. When the lead tank exploded, he instinctively ducked down, and at that time a machine-gun burst pierced the windshield. Everyone quickly jumped out of our Ural, shooting at random. I squeeze between the rocks and the front BMP. This saved my life and several other guys’ lives. The rest were not so lucky. Our sniper had both legs broken by a machine gun burst. He shouted, blocking the shooting, there was a sea of blood, tendons and scraps of bones were sticking out of the wounds. We pulled him away, and all the time he tried to grab me by the hair, as if trying to stay in this world. He later died."
The bandits planned everything correctly. The BMP and BRDM (armored reconnaissance and patrol vehicle) following the tank were shot at point-blank range from small arms fire in the first minutes of the battle. The senior column, Major Terzovets, and the artillery spotter, Captain Vyatkin, were killed. Sniper shots ended the lives of an aviation spotter and the driver of a reconnaissance vehicle. The column at one moment found itself cut off from the outside world, without the support of aviation and artillery. Chechen militants caused active interference on the VHF radio network, which completely deprived the fighters of communication with the command. From pre-prepared firing points located at a height on both sides of the road, the bandits destroyed the equipment and personnel of the regiment with dagger fire for several hours.
Returning to the story of contract soldier Denis Tsiryulnik: “A grenade flew past me and hit the tanker that was driving behind us. The pourer caught fire. I figured that when it exploded it would be very hot here. He got ready and ran across the road, hiding behind concrete blocks near the bridge. So I lay there and wondered where the command had gone. And there was smoke, explosions, and indiscriminate shooting all around. Nothing is visible through the scope. A one and a half meter long river of burning kerosene flowed nearby. Its flame was unbearably hot. I saw how charges for self-propelled guns began to explode nearby in the Ural. Behind it, another Ural was burning with high-explosive shells, which fortunately did not detonate entirely. They were scattered by explosions in all directions. Suddenly something exploded in the car, and the rear axle flew up eighty meters like a candle.”
The soldiers burned alive, not having time to get out of the vehicles being fired at by “Bumblebees” (disposable rocket flamethrowers of domestic production).
The soldiers riding on sacks of food immediately became an excellent target for bandits. The large number of vehicles with fuel in the convoy also played into the hands of the enemy. Exploding, they destroyed all living things around them, burning fuel scattered everywhere. Shell-shocked soldiers trying to get out of the way were finished off by snipers. The militants destroyed trucks with ammunition using RPGs, and fired at those carrying food with small arms.
From the story of senior warrant officer Sergei Cherchik: “I moved and immediately a bullet pierced my heel. The “Dukhovsky” sniper obviously realized that I was alive. He managed to crawl under the car, didn’t throw the machine gun, dragged it behind him. And the sniper started shooting at the wheels so that the car would settle and crush me. A shell fired from a grenade launcher exploded nearby, and a fragment hit me in the thigh. I’m lying there, I can’t think of anything, and the car bridge is about to crush him. At the last moment, one contract soldier pulled me out by the collar. The equipment is all in flames, burning diesel fuel drips from above. The sniper takes out the soldier and breaks his kneecap. A moment later, the two of us were being dragged by another conscript soldier.
Lucky were those who, in the first minutes of the battle, managed to find dead zones where the Chechen fighters could not reach. Many soldiers jumped from a high cliff near a dry river to escape enemy bullets. The next day, scouts combing the gorge and examining the banks of the Argun found their bodies. Some tried to hide from the fire under cars. But even there they were caught by snipers. Where the Chechen separatists could not hit our soldiers directly, they fired with a ricochet. One group of fighters escaped by hiding in a drainage pipe under the road, while another was able to run and take a position in the foundation of a house under construction located nearby.
And again from the notes of Denis Tsirulnik: “When the smoke cleared, I began to look for targets. I saw in my sights how a “dushara” was swarming about one and a half hundred meters from us. I took it off the first time. Shot another one nearby, but I’m not sure I killed him. The bullet hit the parapet, behind which he was hiding at chest level. But the “spirit” disappeared. I started looking through the scope again. On a roll, one of them crawled up the mountain “on four bones.” First shot into milk. He immediately moved faster, but did not have time to escape. The second, like a kick in the butt, threw him over his head.”
After the command of the 245th Motorized Rifle Regiment learned about the attack on the convoy, an order was given... to do nothing until given instructions from above. Only at the beginning of four (local time) the order came to break through to the column. The first to advance were the soldiers of the reconnaissance company blocking the Argun Gorge. There were few scouts, and the militants met them near the village of Yarysh-Mardy. Pinned down by heavy fire, the guys were never able to approach the site of the main battle. After another hour, the leadership of the federal forces in the region made a new attempt to release the ambushed convoy. An armored group of Lieutenant Colonel Miroshnichenko, who was the commander of the second motorized rifle battalion of the 245th regiment, was sent to help her. It consisted of two tanks and three infantry fighting vehicles. Despite the fact that the armored group also came under fire, it managed to break through and reach the battle site.
Word to Sergei Cherchik: “Again, the three of us are lying under the bottom of the car. Everyone ran out of cartridges, and my machine gun was smashed - two bullets hit the bolt frame. They often shouted from the mountain: “Surrender, Russians.” While the smoke was rising and we were not visible, no one fired. The smoke cleared and they started shooting again. Thank God, there was no explosion from the grenade launcher. No one then hoped that he would remain alive. I took the grenade and unbent the pin. I decided, if anything happens, I’ll pull it. Just to avoid being captured. And there is such pressure in my soul, such sorrow... Why am I suffering... Suddenly such a powerful explosion. Everything was buzzing in my head and my ears were ringing. It turned out that ammunition exploded in a burning infantry fighting vehicle nearby. A helmet rolled under our car. And there was silence. And then our helicopters flew up! I saw two of them myself. At first they walked high, and then they descended and began firing rockets at the mountains. And then the artillery from the 324th regiment joined in.”
At six o'clock in the evening, Miroshnichenko's armored group, having fired at the adjacent heights from infantry fighting vehicles and tanks, approached the column. The personnel immediately began evacuating the wounded. Around the same time, an armored group from the 324th regiment arrived, and with it a reconnaissance detachment battered by the militants. The sixth motorized rifle company arrived from the village of Goiskoe in five infantry fighting vehicles. But by this time the battle had already ended, and the detachments of Chechen militants had fled the place.
Denis Tsiryulnik: “I decided to get out of this hell, I ran to the greenery.” My friend and I distributed the sectors of fire. I fired along the front, and he covered the rear... It began to get dark, but there was still no help. Now, I think, the “spirits” will descend and that’s it, crap. Here the artillery began to work, carefully, along the slopes, without touching either the village or us. Then four Mi-24s arrived and shot at the mountains. It was already dark when we heard a terrible roar from the 324th Regiment. Help arrived. There is a tank ahead, followed by an infantry fighting vehicle, then a tank again. A lot of people jumped out of this equipment - reconnaissance of the 324th. Together with them we moved to the head of the column. While I was walking, I counted more than forty burnt bodies. After the first inspection of the damaged equipment, it turned out that the spirits had a clear picture of where and what we had. They didn’t touch the medical MT-LB (light armored multi-purpose transporter) at all, only they shot the mechanic, and turned the ZUshka behind him into a sieve. When we asked why help came so late, the guys from the 324th regiment replied that there was an order from their superiors not to twitch and to stand still. At the head of the column, one BRDM resisted to the last, in which almost everyone died. If help had come earlier, there might have been more survivors.”
In excerpts of video footage of the bandits, filmed, according to experts, for sponsors, one can see burnt, broken and overturned equipment of the destroyed column. The armed militants are very happy, they are talking loudly and posing on broken cars. In the ditch lies an overturned BPM, next to it is a Ural, overturned on its side, followed by another and another. There is a shot BMP in the river, bread is scattered near a burnt truck...
Senior Sergeant Igor Izotov: “The smell at the battle site was sickening. When I returned to the burnt-out Ural, I immediately found my friend Seryoga. Even at the beginning, hiding behind a stone, I saw him running to cover. The first burst broke his legs, the second shot through his torso. In some kind of haze, I kept trying to feel the pulse on Seryoga’s bloody body. I woke up when I was pushed in the back. I loaded the corpse into the Ural that pulled up and only then looked around. The rest of the survivors also found acquaintances and friends. At the same time, someone was terribly swearing, someone was screaming, one soldier vomited when they pulled out the disfigured, burnt body of the tankman. Everyone was possessed by wild horror...”
Officially, the column consisted of just under two hundred people, but there were also unaccounted for conscripts and soldiers going home for family reasons. In addition, civilians who accompanied the convoy took part in the battle on the side of the federal forces, joining them in populated areas. Later it was very difficult to calculate the exact number of those killed, which according to various estimates varies from 73 to 95 people. Each of them died in their own way. Some instantly, in the first seconds of the battle, some on the side of the road near exploding cars, shooting back to the last bullet, some burning alive in trucks. Most of the corpses were almost completely burned. People were identified by socks, pieces of documents, and personal numbers. They were unable to find out the identities of about three dozen fighters at the scene. Their bodies were sent to a special laboratory in Rostov. Fifty people were wounded, and only thirteen soldiers survived the battle completely unharmed. And everyone who was lucky enough to survive admits that it was probably the worst day of their lives...
There is less disagreement in the number of destroyed equipment - one tank, six infantry fighting vehicles, one reconnaissance patrol vehicle, about fourteen trucks. The losses of the militants remained unknown, but in the following days seven bodies belonging to residents of the Shatoi region were found in the surrounding area.
Sergei Cherchik described the rescue operation this way: “I don’t know how much time has passed since the start of the attack. When our first soldiers appeared from the 324th Regiment, it was already dark. For some reason, the militants did not shoot the medical “moto-league” of the column. And they began to gather us, the wounded, and put us in it. Six to eight people fit inside. The dead were placed on the armor. Some unknown fighter got into the cab, began to turn the motorcycle around, drove back, but the road was too narrow. The car hovered over the cliff. I remember how I managed to think that this is not what I survived for. All those killed from above, about ten to fifteen people, fell down into the Argun. Then the driver finally pulled out and parked the car on the road.”
According to official information, the use of artillery by the 245th motorized rifle regiment began at 16:00, and the 324th regiment opened fire at five in the evening. On April 16, the artillerymen of the 245th regiment expended 669 shells, and the 324th regiment – 332 shells. On April 17, in order to evacuate the remaining damaged equipment to the base center and clear the route, another armored group was sent under the leadership of the regiment commander, Colonel Romanikhin. The battlefield looked terrible. The flames had already subsided, and the cars stood in a column, covered in soot and burned to the ground, like ghosts.
The chief of artillery of the 245th motorized rifle regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Boris Kramchenkov, was also present in that raid: “We arrived early in the morning, but the “spirits” were already waiting. There was fog that masked us. This made it possible to more or less calmly remove the burnt equipment. We evacuated everything that could still be useful, and pushed the rest into the cliff. At the same time, the bodies of the dead were found. Everyone was burned. “Everyone was wrapped in foil and taken to the regiment’s base camp.”
An official investigation was conducted into the attack by Khattab militants on the convoy of the 245th motorized rifle regiment in the Yarysh-Mardy area. Due to the amazing naivety (or negligence) of our leadership, after the conclusion of an agreement on the prohibition of hostilities and a long absence of attacks in this region, all checkpoints were removed, and the vigilance of federal forces noticeably dropped. Already on the march, the 245th Motorized Rifle Regiment behaved extremely carelessly, failing to properly organize foot reconnaissance of the road and the surrounding area, which, most likely, would have been able to detect the landmines planted by the militants in advance. There was also no air cover. Side outposts were not set up at potentially dangerous points, and advantageous heights near the route of movement were not occupied. Later, after the start of the battle, the command, for unknown reasons, delayed too long with permission to begin artillery shelling. In general, a lot of “whys” arose during the investigation into the causes of what happened. For example, why was it not allowed to move in time to help a nearby armored group, which could distract the militants and block their escape routes? Why did the helicopters appear so late? Why were the checkpoints of the 324th Regiment near the village of Yarysh-Mardy removed from nearby heights just a couple of days before?
The militants chose the location for the ambush for a reason. They knew about the peace treaty signed on April 4, 1996 between representatives of the authorities of the village of Yarysh-Mardy and the command of the federal troops. They also knew that the village of Yarysh-Mardy was located at the limit of the maximum range of artillery fire. It turns out that the Chechen separatists knew a suspicious amount, but the results of counterintelligence work were not disclosed to the general public. But the investigation into the shooting of the column of the 245th regiment was soon discontinued. The perpetrators in the case were never found. Khattab and Gelayev were later destroyed.
Eternal memory to the guys who fell on that fateful day!
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