Russia's foreign ministry has confirmed that "several dozen" Russian citizens - not regular soldiers - were killed or wounded in a recent battle in Syria. The statement did not give a date. Previously the Russian government said "probably five" Russians had died in a clash in Deir al-Zour province. Some reports have said more than 100 Russian mercenaries were killed in US air strikes on 7 February. Russia does not divulge firm details of "volunteer" fighters in the conflict. What does Russia say? The latest Russian statement said no Russian regular forces had been involved in a "recent armed clash". The foreign ministry spoke of "several dozen" citizens from Russia and other ex-Soviet republics, who have been killed or wounded. It said the injured are undergoing medical treatment at a number of hospitals. "It has been pointed out that certain Russian citizens in Syria have arrived there of their own free will and for different reasons. The foreign ministry does not have the authority to assess the validity and legality of their decisions," it added. Who are the mercenaries? Officially, Russia's military role mainly takes the form of air strikes, helping President Bashar al-Assad's forces. However, independent media have found evidence of other Russian citizens fighting for the Syrian government side. Relatives of the hired fighters say they have been paid insurance money by unknown representatives of so-called private military companies, which bring their bodies back. Source: https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russia-admits-to-dozens-of-casualties-in-syria-clashes-60574 Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43125506 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is no good. Russia has been lying to its own citizens. Russian citizens are getting killed for what???? For saving and providing safe passages to Iranian radical extremist units and terrorist groups who want no Jewish state in the Middle East... SHAME !!!!
SO SAD ! Image captionYevgeny Alikov's mother, Nina Atyusheva, with her dead son's identification tag A pensioner from the north-west Arkhangelsk Oblast region, Nina Atyusheva, told the BBC she has been fighting to get the state to formally record her son's death: "I want to ask this question: in what way are the children sent by the armed forces different from those like mine, who went as a volunteer?" What happened on 7 February? The US launched air and artillery strikes in Deir al-Zour province, which, it says, killed 100 militia. It says it had to defend the headquarters of its allies, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which was under attack by fighters aligned with the Syrian government. The US says these forces crossed an informal demarcation line along the Euphrates River; the government controls the western side and the SDF the east. The two sides have clashed over the past year while trying to drive Islamic State (IS) militants from their last major stronghold in the country. The Pentagon said it had been in constant contact with Russia in the run up to the February operation. The Syrian government called the attacks a "massacre" and said it would complain to the United Nations. Russia and the US have accused each other of operating in the area and planning to control nearby oil fields. How many Russians have died in Syria? According to the Russian defence ministry, 44 official military personnel have died in Syria. The number of dead private military contractors remains unknown. A Reuters investigation showed that at least 131 Russians died in Syria in the first nine months of 2017 - a number thought to include private military contractors.
Where's all your friends.... looking around... is this an ambush? well it's very different and they know it too before they sign up. It is good the Russian foreign ministry have acknowledged the deaths, for the sake of the families.
"who are these Russian merc"? Easy someone Putin doesn't give a f*** about, and basically used them for cannon fodder. I'm sure putinka got a rude surprise when his mercs got "waxed " by the hundreds maybe by gatlings, A10s, F22, supercobras. He may have thought this would've been a cake walk....), well this isn't Donetsk where you can shoot at Ukrops with impunity. The russkis were in the wrong neighborhood.... If this was attempt at a dry run at some future attack at a Nato base in eastern Europe....this should give pause for concern that this is the kind of response awaits!!
I agree. No matter how much the globalists are giving that "perceptive superpower hand" to Russia to get it back on its feet on the world stage again, this is not a region where any state can run the show by their own decisions. I'm not saying Russia is incapable or nothing, because I know they are all well experienced to wage effective proxy wars in different parts of the world probably more than any other state actors, but the US there (thanks to cold war's Vietnam, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, Korea, Africa etc). The thing is, there are way too many factors depending on numerous pieces of various equations/combinations to get one single solution out of this entire sh.t hole. So Russia learns fast, establishes companies that legally collects ultra-nationalist super morons from all around the RF and send them die in the middle of a Syrian desert. It does this because Iran's human stock (proxies) arranged to serve only to Russian agenda is so diverse that it's too hard to get them under a handful of paramilitary organizations -let alone under a single umbrella organization- but rather having them all scattered in dozens of small groups. This makes them unreliable, less predictable, therefore less controllable. So Russia instead of counting on such weak groups, chooses to bring its own human stock to the region. Iran needs Russia to keep Israel off of its back especially during tactical proxy positioning around the Golan Heights and Lebanese-Syrian proxy/logistics transits because Russia has not only been mediating in between these two no matter how much it is inconvenient for it to do so, but providing immunity to some extend in the UN as well. And on top of all, Russia has been giving air support to Iranian groups when they are taking out western proxies in west Syria, like in eastern Ghouta. Russia needs Iran because it has the most threatening proxy existence among all state actors in the region so it can keep safe and secure its centuries long dream: The "Warm-Sea Ports" (Latakia and Tartus). Israel on the other hand, to play smart, needs Turkey by its side more than ever because Russia-Iran partnership is a very strong game changer. It's no longer what Israel plans somewhere in Iraq or in Syria but more like what Iran plans somewhere around the Golan Heights, and in Lebanon... So Russia needing Iran to secure Latakia and Tarsus in exchange of providing them with UN immunity and air power is maybe the most dangerous threat Israel has ever been facing with since 1949. Netanyahu sees all this and he's been tried to get into trouble with made-up corruption allegations lately. We're not in 60's. So Russia's existence in Syria is depending on Iran's existence (proxy activity) which is not for some ideological or imperial reason, but mainly for "incapacitating Israel's geopolitical eastward expansion", because that's what Iran's main threat perception is centered around, which is also understandable.
