Fight in Syria more Costly for Russians than Kremlin has Disclosed
Asharq Al-Awsat 23 March 2017
http://english.aawsat.com/theaawsat/news-middle-east/fight-syria-costly-russians-kremlin-disclosed

Gelendzhik, Russia- Russia’s force in Syria has suffered losses since late
January more than three times higher than the official toll, according to
evidence gathered by Reuters, a tally that shows the fight in Syria is
tougher and more costly than the Kremlin has disclosed.

Eighteen Russian citizens fighting alongside Moscow’s allies, the Syrian
regime forces, have been killed since Jan. 29 - a period that coincided with
intense fighting to recapture the city of Palmyra from ISIS. The Russian
defense ministry has publicly reported only five servicemen’s deaths in
Syria over the same period, and its officials’ statements have not mentioned
any large-scale Russian ground operations in the fight for Palmyra.

Military casualties abroad are not as politically sensitive in Russia as in
some other countries but send a negative message ahead of a presidential
election next year which is expected to give President Vladimir Putin a
fourth term.

The toll was revealed in interviews with relatives and friends of the dead
men, cemetery workers, local media reports of funerals and evidence
collected by a group of investigative bloggers, Conflict Intelligence Team
(CIT).
In each case, Reuters has independently verified information about the death
by speaking to someone who knows the dead man.

The casualties since the end of January represent one of the highest tolls
for the Russian contingent in Syria since the start of Moscow’s military
intervention 18 months ago.

An official with the Russian foreign ministry referred questions about them
to the defense ministry. The Russian defense ministry did not respond to
Reuters questions about the casualties and about military operations in
Syria. The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Most of the dead were not regular Russian soldiers but Russian civilians
working as private military contractors under the orders of Russian
commanders. Moscow has not officially acknowledged the presence of the
contractors in Syria.

One of the 18 men killed was Yuri Sokalsky, a 52-year-old from the Russian
Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik who, according to a person close to him,
signed up to go to Syria in January with a group of private contractors.

In one of his last phone calls home, the person close to him said, he
expressed surprise at the large numbers of Russian contractors being
dispatched to Syria, and relayed what he had been told about the intensity
of the combat.

“Out of every 100 people, 50 are coming back in caskets,” the person
recalled Sokalsky as saying. The person asked not to be identified, fearing
repercussions for revealing information that is sensitive for the Russian
authorities.

On March 14 last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial
drawdown of Russian forces in Syria, saying their mission had, “as a whole,
been fulfilled.” The fight for Palmyra this year tells a different story.

The 18 fatalities documented by Reuters include the five regular soldiers
whose deaths were announced by the defense ministry, four private military
contractors in one unit killed on the same day, seven other such
contractors, and two regular soldiers whose deaths the defense ministry has
not announced.

The period examined by Reuters coincided with the start of a major Russian
deployment to the area around Palmyra, according to several people close to
the dead fighters.

Several relatives of people killed in Syria said they had received phone
calls from people involved in recruiting private military contractors
warning them not to speak to media.

Out of the 18 dead, at least 10 were killed in the region of Palmyra, which
ISIS jihadists seized in December for a second time in a year – a major
reversal for Syrian regime forces and their Russian backers.

On Jan. 10, Sokalsky, a land mine specialist, left his home in Gelendzhik
and set off for Rostov, in southern Russia, to join a group of private
contractors being dispatched to Syria.

On his one previous tour to Syria, only fighters over 35 were being hired,
selected to carry out specialist technical roles or train Syrian units
rather than for out-and-out combat.

“This time they were taking everyone,” said the person close to Sokalsky.

Two official documents seen by Reuters show that on Jan. 31, Sokalsky died
from shrapnel injuries in Tiyas, in Syria’s Homs province about 60 km west
of Palmyra. Three other members of his unit, all private military
contractors, were killed the same day, according to relatives, friends and
cemetery officials. They were Alexei Nainodin, Roman Rudenko, and a third
man whose name Reuters was not able to establish.

Another private military contractor, Dmitry Markelov, was also killed at
Tiyas, site of the Syrian military’s T4 air base, on Jan. 29, according to
people close to him.

Four regular Russian servicemen were killed in the same area on Feb. 16,
Russian state media cited a defense ministry statement as saying. The
soldiers, described by state media as “advisors” to the Syrian military,
were not named. A fifth regular serviceman, Artyom Gorbunov, was killed near
Palmyra on March 2, state media quoted the ministry as saying.

A further eight members of the Russian contingent were killed since the end
of January at unknown locations in Syria, the evidence gathered by Reuters
showed.

They were contractors Konstantin Zadorozhny, Ivan Slyshkin, Vasily Yurlin,
Alexander Sagaydak, Alexander Zangiyev, and Alexander Tychinin, and regular
Russian soldiers Igor Vorona, and Sergei Travin.

Local media reports and social media posts point to more Russian deaths in
Syria since the end of January than the 18 casualties, but Reuters has not
been able to verify that information independently.