Russian special forces officer killed in Syria
A Russian special forces officer was killed in Syria on Thursday near the city of Palmyra, RIA Novosti reported.
"Near the village of Tadmor, in the performance of a specific task to provide targets for Russian airstrikes against IS [the so-called Islamic State] an officer of the Russian special forces was killed," a representative of the Russian military stated.
The special forces officer was tasked with carrying out a reconnaissance mission to provide coordinates of positions of the so-called Islamic State for Russian aircraft during the Syrian army's push to retake the city of Palmyra.
"The soldier died heroically, calling the strike onto himself after he was discovered and surrounded by terrorists," the representative stated.
According official reports, the special forces officer was the sixth Russian soldier to have died as part of the Syrian operation.
Recently, however, RBC reported that another serviceman, Serhiy Chupov, was killed during the operation in February, which would make a total of seven Russian soldiers killed in Syria.
As relayed to RBC, Chupov died on the 8th of February, 2016. According to his former colleague, who knew Chupov from the first Chechen campaign, he was called by a "Colonel Olexiy Kosmachev" a few weeks ago and invited to the funeral of Chupov, saying that he was killed in Syria during a mortar attack.
The experts from the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), the group responsible for investigating the armed conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, also reported the death of the soldier. CIT also reported the death of another soldier, Fedor Zhuravlev, in Syria in November of 2015, whose death was later confirmed.
CIT found comments made by three of Chupov’s former colleagues on the social networks Vkontakte and Classmates. All three soldiers commented on photos of Chupov, and answered questions by other friends about his fate; according to them, he was killed in Syria in late February. Chupov’s colleague, Serhiy Saprykin, said that he died from shrapnel wounds.
Chupov's widow, Svitlana, confirmed the death of her husband. However, when asked for clarification she said that RBC has “incorrect information about where he died.” She refused to discuss the details of the death of her husband and recommended journalists send a request to the archive in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
After the death of the special forces officer on Thursday, the Kremlin has officially recognized the deaths of six Russian soldiers killed during the operation in Syria. The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, named the deceased at a reception at the Kremlin on the 17th of March, 2016.
Oleg Peshkov was the pilot of the Su-24 bomber, shot down by Turkish fighter jets on the 24th of November, 2015.
Oleksandr Pozynich was a marine who died during the rescue of the pilot of the downed plane.
Ivan Cheremisin was a Russian military adviser who died on the 1st of February, 2016. Officially the Ministry of Defense did not name him among the deceased. The Minister said only that he "assisted the Syrian Army in the development of new weapons." Later the deceased was named in the media.
The death of commando Fedor Zhuravlev has still not been officially reported. The investigation of his death was conducted by the Conflict Intelligence Team. The soldier died no later than the 19th of November, 2015.
The fifth victim was 19-year-old soldier, Vadym Kostenko, who served at the airbase Hamim. The parents were informed of his death on the 25th of October, 2015. The Defense Ministry and the Military Prosecutor's Office claimed that Kostenko had committed a suicide due to "adverse personal circumstances beyond the military base." However, the relatives and a friend of the victim doubt the validity of this report.