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Ghosts of war: how the Russian private army appeared in Syria. Unidentified army

During two campaigns in 2015-2017, PMCs lost up to a hundred killed and more than three hundred wounded soldiers in Syria.

The personnel documentation of the informal military unit "Wagner Group" was at the disposal of the Fontanka editors. Our story is about who dies and for what in the Syrian Republic, not getting into the official statistics of the Ministry of Defense, and about why the words of the generals are slyness. And also about how the private war has changed after Syria signed a document with the Russian Euro Polis LLC.

PMC Wagner is an informal military organization that took part in the fighting in the Donbass (on the side of Novorossiya) and in Syria (on the side of the Assad government). For the first time, Fontanka spoke about the activities of this PMC in the fall of 2015. Employees of PMC Wagner are not related to any official power structure Russian Federation, however, they received military orders and medals for their combat work.

Whom the Ministry of Defense despises

It is officially recognized that 39 Russian servicemen were killed during the operation in Syria. The Ministry of Defense should not include the killed and wounded fighters of the Wagner group in its statistics, considering these losses as "a myth about some dead "contract soldiers" from a "mysterious" organization." The Reuters publication, according to which Russia lost 36 people in Syria in 2016, and approximately 40 in seven months of 2017, was considered by the official representative of the Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov, to be “mockery”, worthy of contempt: “Again, some rumors are used as sources , social media data and fictitious conversations with allegedly "intimidated" anonymous "relatives and acquaintances" ”(quote from RIA Novosti).

If “data from social networks and conversations” is not enough, documents and photographs must be provided. The content of the documents at the disposal of the editors confirms the assumption that since the end of 2015, a private battalion has been operating in Syria in the interests of the structures of businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, and its fighters are being trained on the territory of the military unit of the Ministry of Defense in the Krasnodar Territory.

Unaccounted losses of Palmyra

Wagner's fighting in Syria can be roughly divided into two campaigns.

The first began in September 2015, when the companies arrived in Syria. Until the beginning of 2016, the units did not conduct large-scale actions. Serious battles and losses began in February - March, during the operation to liberate Palmyra. In April - May 2016, according to our data, the main combat units of the group, having handed over heavy weapons and equipment, were withdrawn from Syria to Russia.

According to the lists, which we believe were compiled by the administration of the Wagner group, approximately 32 private fighters died during this campaign. About 80 fighters were seriously injured, requiring long-term inpatient treatment in hospitals. The approximation in our calculations is explained by the fact that not in all cases it was possible to establish the fate of the wounded who were in critical condition.

The second campaign started in early 2017. The documents available to Fontanka date back to June 2017. The main activity is Palmyra and the adjacent oil fields. Fontanka does not have such accurate evidence as for the period 2015-2016. Based on the analysis of available documents and the words of eyewitnesses, one can speak of losses ranging from 40 to 60 killed and two to three times as many wounded. We were also able to document the affiliation to the Wagner group of several fighters whose deaths in Syria were reported by Fontanka, RBC and the Conflict Intelligence Team in 2017.

In between the two operations in Syria, there were support units, as well as groups of specialists who participated in local skirmishes. During this period, mountainous Latakia, the oil fields of Shaer and Aleppo are mentioned.

The documents that fell into our hands - self-filled application forms, copies of passports from "personal files", photographs of candidates taken in the "security service" - allow us to confidently speak about the belonging of the fighters to the structure known as "Wagner PMC" and which in the documents is referred to as the "Wagner Group", "Battalion Tactical Group" Wagner "or simply" the company ".

The fact of the death of a fighter is more difficult to establish, but in most cases we succeeded. Comments of officials, messages in the media mass media, especially in those media that can in no way be classified as opposition-minded, photographs of burial places, messages from grieving relatives in in social networks and condolences from friends, in our opinion, are sufficient confirmations.

The most difficult question is to confirm the place of death. Fontanka believes that in at least ten to fifteen cases it was able to convincingly prove this.

For example, in March 2016, photographs appeared on the Internet resources of the Islamic State (banned in Russia), which were allegedly taken from dead Russians who fought on the side of Assad. Among them are several photos of a fair-haired guy with a memorable face in Syrian landscapes. On video frames - the mutilated body of the same person.

"Fontanka" established the name of the deceased. This is Ivan Vladimirovich Sumkin, born in 1987. Callsign "Varyag", Wagner's reconnaissance company. He is from a village in the Orenburg region. He served in the motorized rifle troops, then worked as an electric welder. In the spring of 2015 he came to Wagner. March 16, 2016 died. Where the grave of Ivan Sumkin is located, and whether he was buried at all, is unknown - according to Fontanka, his body was not removed from the battlefield. Ivan is survived by his wife and two-year-old son.

A video about the awarding of the Order of Courage to Alexander Karchenkov appeared on Channel 9 of Stary Oskol on November 3, 2016. It was reported that on September 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the posthumous awarding of Starooskol Karchenkov, who died during the liberation of Palmyra in the spring of 2016. The order was presented to the widow and mother of Karchenkov by the head of the district.

Lyudmila Karchenkova said that her husband went to Syria to serve under a contract in January 2016, and in March it was reported that he died "during the mission."

Alexander Karchenkov is not in the official lists of the dead published by the Ministry of Defense, which General Konashenkov suggests that the press be guided by. And of course, a 45-year-old unemployed, reserve foreman, could not be a secret officer of the Special Operations Forces.

As follows from the documents of the Wagner company, Karchenkov got a job there in December 2015, was part of a material support company and died on March 13, 2016. Indeed, near Palmyra. As evidence - a photograph of Karchenkov taken when signing up for service at the Wagner base in Molkino, a self-filled questionnaire, an agreement and a non-disclosure agreement.

There are more than forty similar stories with only well-known surnames. Syrian martyrology "Fontanka" - these are documents, photographs, awards of "Wagnerites". Each, when applying for a “job”, filled out a questionnaire, each was photographed and checked on a polygraph. These documents were made available to readers for the first time. We publish the stories of men who went to fight for 240 thousand rubles a month and found their death in the Syrian desert. Someone pointed out “patriotism” or “changes in the geopolitical position of Russia” as the reason for admission. The majority referred to loans and a desire to improve their financial situation.

Two Russian citizens who did not return from Syria were not included in this list. Fighters with the call signs "Altai" and "Bertolet" (their full details are known to the editors) are considered missing. They disappeared on the same day that Ivan Sumkin died, whose body was left on the battlefield.

The chances that Altai and Bertolet are alive and in captivity are minimal, but there is such a possibility, and Fontanka refrains from publishing their names and photographs.

How Wagner got lost in Molkino

The fact that the personnel formation and training of the Wagner group unit take place on the territory military base in the village of Molkino, Krasnodar Territory, in the same place where the 10th separate brigade of the GRU of the Ministry of Defense is deployed, wrote Fontanka, RBC, the Wall Street Journal and Zeit. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of evidence on social networks that in order to join the PMC, one must go to Molkino and head straight to the checkpoint with a question about Wagner. But for the Ministry of Defense this is not an argument, because it is regarded as rumors and slander.

Having studied the photographs of the Wagner security service taken during the check of the candidates being hired, Fontanka believes that these photos convincingly prove that an armed structure, not provided for by any Russian law, is located precisely on the territory of the Molkino training ground. In the Fontanka investigation, you can see how the delinquent "Wagnerites" are treated and even see the head of the mysterious "company's security service."

Tramp, Gray-haired, Wagner and Ratibor surrounded the President

The commanders of the "mysterious organization" do not hide their faces. In December 2016, the commander of the group Dmitry Utkin and his deputy Andrey Troshev appeared on the footage of the protocol filming of the Heroes of the Fatherland ceremony in the Kremlin. In January 2017, a photograph was found on the Web, apparently from the same reception, where Utkin and Troshev, as well as two other men with high awards, were captured together with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Fontanka found out who these mysterious cavaliers are next to the president. Their names are Tramp and Ratibor, in the world - Andrey Bogatov and Alexander Kuznetsov. One of them just before the Ukrainian events was released from the colony, where he was serving a term for kidnapping and robbery. The other did not have violations worse than illegal parking.

Palmyra-2016 and Palmyra-2017

The Kremlin reception of December 2016 is the highest point of Wagner's takeoff. Then something went wrong. The fighting in Syria in 2016 and 2017, as veterans of both campaigns told Fontanka, are fundamentally different.

In 2015-2016, according to participants in the events, training in Molkino took up to two months, ammunition was allocated for study in unlimited quantities, including expensive rounds for anti-tank missile systems. In Syria, the group received T-72 tanks, BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems, and D-30 122-mm howitzers. The states of the spring 2016 model provided for 2349 personnel, including four reconnaissance and assault companies, a group headquarters, a tank company, a combined artillery group, reconnaissance and support units. There were 1,500-2,000 fighters on a Syrian mission at the same time. Combat salaries and bonuses were paid on time, they did not skimp on orders.

At the end of that spring of 2016, the first misunderstanding came. The fact that, according to the initial agreement, five commanders of the Wagner group were presented to the title of Hero of Russia, Fontanka was informed by several informed interlocutors. Two passed through the filter of the awards department.

Before the withdrawal from Syria in April-May 2016, heavy weapons and military equipment were handed over. Most of the personnel was sent to the reserve - to sit at home and wait for a call on a business trip. When at the end of 2016 they began to assemble a team for a new expedition to the oil fields, it turned out that everything had changed.

Now, there are allegedly practically no weapons left at the Wagner base in Molkino, with the exception of a few machine guns, mostly at the guards.

Training is reduced to control firing, heavy infantry weapons crews (heavy machine guns, automatic mounted grenade launchers, mounted anti-tank grenade launchers) do not conduct practical firing from "regular" weapons.

Upon arrival in Syria at the beginning of 2017, according to the stories of those who returned, 20 rounds of ammunition were issued to the machine gun for zeroing weapons and four magazines and 120 rounds of ammunition as ammunition. Armament consisted of North Korean-made AK-47 assault rifles received from the Syrian side and several Kalashnikov PK and RPK machine guns. The second company got 1946 RP-46 company machine guns. In the Soviet army, these weapons in the troops were replaced by PCs and RPKs back in the 60s of the last century.

A couple of weeks later, several SVD sniper rifles and one or two AGS-17s entered service, which did not fundamentally solve the problem.

Instead of the T-72 tanks handed over in the spring of 2016, four or five T-62s were received. Instead of D-30 howitzers - about a dozen M-30 howitzers of the 1938 model, long removed from service in the Soviet army.

Fontanka does not have exact data on losses in the battles of January - May 2017. Based on fragmentary and undocumented stories, we can talk about 40-60 dead and three times the number of wounded. Seven Wagner fighters who died in 2017 are known by name, and all of them, apparently, did not return from Syria, since the group’s activities in the Donbass have been curtailed.

The number of losses exceeding the losses of 2016 at times, according to the participants in the events, is explained not only by the lack of weapons and military equipment, but also by the significantly reduced quality of personnel.

In 2017, the salary policy of the Wagner company changed. Now only a fighter of a reconnaissance and assault company involved in combat operations receives 240 thousand per month. The security of the Hayat plant, gunners, operators of unmanned aerial vehicles, and support units receive about 160,000 rubles a month. Unlike in previous years, there are delays.

They try to compensate for the decrease in quality with quantity. Two additional reconnaissance and assault companies have been deployed. Thus, the number of companies was brought up to six, and the infantry personnel in the group - up to about 2 thousand people. Today, four companies are working in Syria, two companies have been temporarily sent to the reserve.

"Spring" in Syria

An additional source of recruitment for Wagner is the population of Donbass. Until 2017, citizens of Ukraine (or the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics) were not accepted to Wagner. The exception was the group "Karpaty", formed mainly from ethnic Ukrainians. The composition of this group was planned to be used for sabotage and deep reconnaissance in the rear of the Ukrainian troops, but, as they say, due to the poor training of personnel, these plans failed.

In 2017, the group was deployed to the Vesna unit (by call sign of the commander), its strength was increased to 100-150 people. In addition to Ukrainians, the group included residents of the Cossack regions of Russia and fifteen or twenty natives of Chechnya.

Oil, gas, Euro Polis

As of August 2017, according to Fontanka, the work of Wagner units in Syria is to protect and defend oil-bearing regions with the main object - the Khayan plant. If possible, advance and capture territory.

The main base is located on the tank track about 80 kilometers from Homs and 40 kilometers from the Hayan plant. In addition to Wagner, Hezbollah detachments, Iranian Revolutionary Guards and similar units are based at the Tankodrome, including the showcase Syrian ISIS Hunters, the heroes of pretentious pr-videos. They are promised 500 US dollars for twenty days of a military operation, but the Syrians, judging by the stories of the Wagnerites, do not agree to fight on such conditions and often, having received military training, go into the armed opposition or into the very ISIS banned in Russia, for which they were supposed to hunt.

Fontanka has already talked about the agreements reached between Syrian government organizations and the Russian Euro Polis LLC, behind which are people from the structures of billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin. LLC "Euro Polis" undertook to liberate and protect oil fields and factories for reimbursement of the costs of hostilities plus a quarter of the oil and gas produced. That is, to do exactly what the Wagner group is doing today (we talked about the probable connections of which with Yevgeny Prigozhin during the “first Palmyra”). They say that now blue jackets with a white inscription "Euro Polis" are issued to all Wagner employees who depart on a Syrian business trip.

Judging by our information, since 2017, the financing of the Wagner campaign, its supply of weapons, equipment and ammunition has been carried out at the expense of the Syrian side and is accompanied by constant delays in payments and disputes over their amount.

Why did Sergey Kuzhugetovich quarrel with Evgeny Viktorovich

In 2016, the Wagner group clearly did not experience such problems. Now it has become bad not only with the supply: as eyewitnesses told Fontanka, interaction with army aviation and artillery (which was allegedly commonplace in 2016) has been reduced to almost zero, helicopters of the Russian group do not take part in the evacuation of the wounded of the Wagner battalion, which is significantly complicates their delivery to medical facilities. Military transport aviation allegedly no longer transports wounded Wagnerites, and they have to be taken out almost in the cargo compartments of charter flights of a Syrian airline flying to Rostov.

The reasons for the onset of cooling, according to Fontanka's sources, may be different.

Perhaps the conflict is caused by weak conspiracy in the activities of the quasi-military organization. If the army men were ready to tolerate an incomprehensible private structure on their territory, supply it with weapons, equipment and support it with fire as long as it remained a secret, then since the appearance of numerous information about Wagner and his team on the Web, the situation has changed. It is unlikely that the military command wants to bear responsibility for the actions of a detachment that is not bound by any formal laws and operates outside the boundaries of law. It is impossible not to note the coincidence: the time of the urgent withdrawal of Wagner from Syria with the actual disarmament and the suspension of recruitment and the time of the publication of Fontanka about Dmitry Utkin and his team.

According to one version, the reason was not at all serious for statesmen: a dispute about the number and dignity of awards. Fontanka has reason to believe that the reason for the cooling is much more significant.

Investigations by Fontanka, RBC, Novaya Gazeta, other media, and the Alexei Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation convincingly showed Yevgeny Prigozhin’s almost monopoly position in government procurement of the Ministry of Defense and subordinated military structures. Related to Prigogine legal entities receive the lion's share of orders for the construction and maintenance of military camps, cleaning, occupy almost the entire military food market.

Judging by open information on the website of the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office, numerous claims and proceedings on cases of administrative offenses in arbitration courts and in courts of general jurisdiction, since 2016, a wave of claims has been growing against companies associated with the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Concord holding. Companies and officials are brought to administrative responsibility for violating license requirements and for non-compliance with labor law, army control bodies, after checking military canteens, identify and document cockroaches, products with traces of mold and decay, after which they resort to penalties. Military prosecutors fix the construction work without the relevant documents, permits, projects and react - within the limits of their authority.

At the same time, a situation has arisen where the same military supply system, for example, is completely closed to the Concorde structures, and its restructuring promises many problems. The situation is similar with the maintenance and construction of military camps. Apparently, the military department can no longer refuse the services of a monopolist, although the leadership of the Ministry of Defense is unlikely to be happy with this state of affairs.

Games with their own private army, when possible profits go to a corporation, and all the bumps fall on the military, who are responsible for the operation in Syria, could overflow the cup of patience.

Another issue is the level at which the decision is made about the use (and the very existence) of a private battalion. And whose word weighs more at that level: the Minister of Defense or the owner of the Russian Kitsch restaurant.

Three Russian journalists - Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguev and Orkhan Dzhemal - were killed in the Central African Republic (CAR) on Monday, July 30. The Russians went there to investigate the activities of the "private military company Wagner". Journalists and activists collected a lot of information about her bit by bit during recent years. DW presents all the most important things we have learned so far.

What is PMC Wagner

The Wagner Private Military Company or the Wagner Group is an unofficial military organization that is not part of the regular Russian armed forces and does not have legal status on its territory. The military units of PMC Wagner numbered at different times and according to various sources, from 1350 to 2000 people. According to sources in the German newspaper Bild in the Bundeswehr, the total number of mercenaries reaches 2,500 people.

Officials in Russia deny the existence of PMC Wagner. The Kremlin only admits that privately, Russians can participate in hostilities abroad. Mercenary activity is prohibited by Article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, however, proposals are made in the State Duma and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation to legalize private military companies in Russia. Speaking about the goals of Russian journalists in the Central African Republic, the state media of the Russian Federation reported that they were "filming documentaries in the republic about the life of this country."

Where did Wagner come from and what are Prigozhin's interests

Dmitry Valeryevich Utkin "Wagner", born in 1970, is considered the head of the private military company of the same name. Apparently, he took up this activity after his dismissal from the post of commander of the 700th separate special forces detachment of the 2nd separate special forces brigade of the GRU, stationed in Pechory, Pskov region. A copy of the report on his dismissal is on the Web. Nothing is known about its authenticity, but there were no denials either. In 2016, Utkin was seen at a special reception in the Kremlin for the military, distinguished by special heroism. Since June 2017, Utkin has been under US sanctions; the list of the US Treasury states: "Associated with Wagner's private military company."

One of the sources of funding for PMCs in the media is called secret items of expenditure of the Russian Ministry of Defense, as well as businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He is also called "Putin's cook". As RBC found out, Yevgeny Prigozhin participated in several tenders to ensure the maintenance of the base of the Wagner group.

Prigozhin himself, who is also under US sanctions, denies any connection with the Wagner PMC. There is only circumstantial evidence of his involvement. Since the winter of 2016-2017, the Russian company Evro Polis LLC has become interested in the development of gas and oil fields in Syria. According to RBC and Fontanka, she is affiliated with Prigozhin.

In the summer of 2017, Euro Polis entered into an agreement with the Syrian state concern that it would protect and extract energy resources at local fields and receive at its disposal a quarter of the volume extracted from those towers that it recaptured from ISIS militants, AP reported with reference to for a copy of the agreement. Security functions, it is believed, should be taken over by Wagner PMC fighters.

Where did Wagner's mercenaries fight?

She grew up, as it is believed, from the Slavic Corps military company, which performed combat missions in Syria back in 2013. The future head of the PMC, Dmitry Utkin, call sign "Wagner", also belonged to the "Slavic Corps". The first evidence of the activities of PMC Wagner was recorded by the Ukrainian special services in May 2014 in the Donbass. In October 2017, the head of the SBU of Ukraine, Vasily Hrytsak, announced the involvement of the "Wagnerites" in the destruction of the military transport Il-76 in eastern Ukraine in June 2014, the storming of the Donetsk airport and the fighting near Debaltseve. There is no independent confirmation of this information.

Since the second half of 2015, evidence of the activity of Wagner PMCs has appeared only in Syria. It is believed that its fighters, in particular, actively participated in the first and second assaults on Palmyra in 2016 and 2017. Since June 2017, the goals of the mercenaries, as reported by the Russian media RBC and Fontanka, have changed. "Fontanka" wrote that the Russian Ministry of Defense has sharply reduced the supply of weapons to PMCs, transferring only obsolete samples.

Allegedly, PMCs were offered to receive funding in Syria itself, including through the capture and protection of oil and gas fields. In this regard, it is noteworthy that the attack in the area of the Syrian village of Husham, allegedly with the participation of "Wagnerites", was carried out in the area of an oil field and, according to some information, was aimed at capturing it.

Interests Russian PMCs in Africa

The interest of Russian mercenaries in the region was recorded after negotiations between the top Russian leadership and the leaders of Sudan and the Central African Republic in the fall of 2017. According to the British BBC, traces of Wagner PMCs have been seen in Sudan since the end of 2017. Russian journalist Alexander Kots published a video with a Russian instructor training soldiers in Sudan, with the caption "everyday life of a Russian PMC."

According to The Bell, about 100 mercenaries are training Sudanese military units. In exchange, according to the publication, M Invest and Meroe Gold, associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, signed concession agreements for gold mining in this country.

But armed people from Russia were also seen in the neighboring Central African Republic, and it is possible that we are talking about a new PMC that is not associated with the Wagner group. Officially, it is only known that Russia is studying the possibilities of "mutually beneficial development of the reserves of natural resources of the Central African Republic. In 2018, the implementation of prospecting mining concessions began," as the Russian Foreign Ministry said at the end of March.

Also, the Foreign Ministry said that Moscow "free of charge" delivered for the needs of the Central African army in late January - early February "a batch of small arms and ammunition, and also sent 5 military and 170 Russian civilian instructors to train CAR military personnel.

The first that “civilian instructors” could be members of Russian PMCs was reported by the French radio station Europe1, the AFP agency and the publication Le Monde. According to them, the Russians chose the estate of the former leader of the country, Bokassa, 60 kilometers from the capital Bangui, as their base. An AFP correspondent who was on site said he was unable to take photos or videos.

Private army fighters: who are they

The recruitment of mercenaries, judging by the information about the dead, was going on throughout Russia. Many of those killed in Syria had previous experience of fighting in eastern Ukraine. This is confirmed by both relatives and acquaintances of the dead mercenaries. According to the Ukrainian SBU, there are 277 people who fought in both "hot spots".

Recruitment of private military personnel does not appear to have been limited to Russia, but also among residents of separatist-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine. According to the SBU, as of October 2017, 40 fighters with Ukrainian passports served in the Wagner PMC. Similar information, without specifying exact figures, was previously cited by several Russian media outlets.

How they accept and how much they pay mercenaries

Mercenaries hired by PMCs sign a non-disclosure agreement. The St. Petersburg publication Fontanka reported the most details about the work of PMC Wagner, which claims to have some of the company's internal documentation. Referring to published copies of documents, Fontanka claims, in particular, that all applicants fill out questionnaires with personal information, a photograph, undergo a polygraph test and receive from 160,000 to 240,000 rubles a month for their work.

Ruslan Leviev, founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), an activist group that monitors the actions of the Russian military in Syria, clarifies that the salary depends on the skills, goals and location of the operation. During training in Russia, according to CIT, the salary ranges from 50 to 80 thousand, during foreign operations - 100-120 thousand, in the event of hostilities - 150-200 thousand, in the case of special campaigns or major battles - up to 300 thousand .

Where do mercenaries train?in Russia

The "Wagner Group", according to numerous testimonies, trains at a military base near the Molkino farm in the Krasnodar Territory, directly adjacent to the 10th separate brigade of the GRU special forces of the RF Ministry of Defense (military unit 51532). There is no information about other training points.

Losses among mercenaries

The calculation of losses among the "soldiers of fortune" is complicated for a number of reasons: this is the illegal status of PMCs and its fighters, and the company's formal non-accountability to government agencies, and a non-disclosure agreement. As a result, the relatives of the victims often find out about the incident only a few weeks later. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation refuses to record losses among mercenaries.

In October 2017, the SBU provided data on 67 dead, who had experience of military operations both in the Donbass and in Syria. As of December 2017, the Fontanka journalists estimated the total number of established casualties since the beginning of the participation of mercenaries in hostilities in Syria at 73, the CIT team at 101 people.

See also:

From spring to war

In early 2011, the "Arab Spring" reached Syria, but the first peaceful demonstrations were brutally suppressed by the police. Then, starting on March 15, mass protests began to flare up across the country demanding the resignation of Bashar al-Assad. It was hardly imaginable that those events would set off a conflict that would drag on for eight long years and claim the lives of nearly half a million Syrians.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Parties to the conflict

After a wave of mass protests swept through the country, Assad began to use the army to suppress them. In turn, opponents of the regime were forced to take up arms. The conflict also included groups of national minorities (for example, the Kurds) and Islamist terrorist groups, among which the so-called "Islamic State" stands apart.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

"Caliphate" of terrorists

In April 2013, fighters from the terrorist organization ISIS, formed from a division of al-Qaeda, entered the civil war in Syria. In June 2014, the group announced the renaming of the "Islamic state" and proclaimed "caliphate". According to some reports, in 2015, about 70 percent of the territory of Syria was under the control of ISIS, and the number of militants was 60,000 people.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Cultural heritage as a target for terrorists

The destruction of the ancient oasis city of Palmyra has become a symbol of the barbaric treatment of cultural heritage by ISIS terrorists. In total, more than 300 archaeological sites have been destroyed since the start of the civil war in Syria. In February 2015, the UN Security Council equated the destruction of objects of historical, cultural and religious value by IS militants to acts of terrorism.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Migration Crisis

According to the UN, over the past seven years, 5.3 million Syrians have fled the country. Most of them took refuge in neighboring Turkey (more than 3 million people), Lebanon (over 1 million) and Jordan (almost 700 thousand). But the possibilities of these countries to receive refugees were practically exhausted. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have gone to seek refuge in Europe, sparking a refugee crisis in the EU.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

International coalition against ISIS

In September 2014, US President Barack Obama announced the creation of an international coalition against IS, which included more than 60 states. Members of the coalition launched airstrikes on militant positions, trained local ground forces, and provided humanitarian assistance to the population. In December 2018, US President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of American soldiers from Syria, justifying this with a victory over ISIS.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Islamic Anti-Terrorist Coalition

In December 2015, Saudi Arabia presented its anti-terrorist coalition, consisting of Islamic countries. It includes 34 states, some of which, like the Saudis themselves, are also members of the international coalition led by the United States.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Russian involvement

Since the fall of 2015, the Russian Aerospace Forces have also been carrying out strikes in Syria, according to Moscow, only against ISIS positions. According to NATO, 80% of Russian airstrikes were aimed at Assad's opponents from the moderate opposition. In November 2017, Putin announced the imminent end of his military mission in Syria. The grouping will be reduced, but 2 military bases and some other structures will remain at the disposal of the Russian Federation.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Peace negotiations

On March 14, 2016, on the eve of the 5th anniversary of the start of the civil war in Syria, negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the conflict under the auspices of the UN started in Geneva. The first such attempt in early February ended in failure against the backdrop of the offensive of Assad's army on the city of Aleppo. The second chance appeared after the conclusion of a truce between the parties on February 27 with the assistance of the United States and the Russian Federation.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Use of chemical weapons

According to a joint UN/OPCW report, the Assad regime was responsible for the use of the poison sarin in Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017, and the Islamic State used sulfur mustard during an attack in Oum Hosh in September 2016.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Arrangement for security zones

Since January 2017, in the capital of Kazakhstan, at the initiative of Russia, Turkey and Iran, inter-Syrian negotiations have been held parallel to the Geneva talks on a settlement in Syria. For the first time, representatives of both the Bashar al-Assad regime and opposition forces met at the same table. In May, a memorandum on the creation of four de-escalation zones in northern, central and southern Syria was signed in Astana.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

A year of radical change in Syria

The year 2017 brought radical changes to the situation in Syria. Back in December 2016, Assad’s troops, with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces, liberated Aleppo, and in the spring of 2017, Homs. And in June, US-Russian agreements were reached to establish the Euphrates River as a dividing line between the Syrian Democratic Forces and Assad's troops.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Defeat of ISIS, but not yet the final victory

In 2018, Assad's troops occupied the strategically important city of Deir ez-Zor and several others. And the opposition "Forces of Democratic Syria" and the Kurdish YPG with the support of the United States - Rakku. On March 3, 2019, a decisive battle took place for the last settlement of Bahgus, which is in the hands of ISIS. After the liberation of the village, only a remote region west of the Euphrates will remain under ISIS control.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Troika in Sochi

In 2017, at a meeting in Sochi, the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey, Vladimir Putin, Hassan Rouhani and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came up with a number of initiatives, calling on Damascus and the opposition to participate in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, which should pave the way for constitutional reform. In 2019, the leaders of the three states said that control of Syria should return to the government in Damascus.

Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

New use of chemical weapons in Douma

According to humanitarian organizations, on April 7, 2018, chemical weapons were used again in the city of Duma, the last center of resistance of Islamists and rebels in the region. According to WHO, more than 70 people died during the attack, and 500 residents had symptoms of poisoning. Syrian authorities denied this information. But on March 1, 2019, OPCW experts concluded that chlorine was most likely used in Douma.

“The Syrians and ours decided to seize the factory from the Kurds in the zone of work of the Americans”

The media are full of reports about the fighters of Wagner's private military company (PMC) killed by the Americans in Syria. At the same time, the numbers are called the most diverse. We contacted those who are related to the Wagner PMC to clarify the circumstances of the incident.

Our first interlocutor, one of the field commanders in the Donbas, said about the total losses of the convoy, the majority of which were Syrians: “According to my information, there were over a hundred of them.” He told MK that only two of his former fighters were among the dead. "Two. They left for Syria back in 2015. When everything calmed down with us. No, I would not say that it was only because of the money. They believed that they were going to defend the Russian world on the outskirts of our sphere of influence. So write: died for the motherland and for the idea.

Our other source, located directly in Syria, explained:

The Syrians and ours decided to seize the plant from the Kurds in the zone of work of the Americans. There were three companies of private traders and a Syrian militia. The first line of Kurds and Americans was demolished rather quickly, even too easily. Then aircraft arrived, drones and turntables, and they were threshed for four hours. (According to another version, the shot column counterattacked ISIS fighters banned in Russia, who began to retreat towards the CONOCO oil refinery, where the secret US base was allegedly located at the same time - "MK").

The source gave a total figure of 40 dead and 72 wounded (meaning, again, mostly Syrians).

I don’t understand what they were counting on, he was surprised, they climbed on the Americans with only Kalash. But it was purely commercial. It has nothing to do with the war...

Help "MK": what is the plant CONOCO

"An oil refinery located in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor near a large oil and gas field. The CONOCO field was once discovered by the Americans, it was at their expense that a plant was built there (it was also called El Isba). The plant was nationalized by the regime Bashar Assad.

Then he was under the control of ISIS banned in Russia, and in September last year he was recaptured by the Kurds. In October, according to some reports, after negotiations with the Kurdish side, with the mediation of Russia, the plant was transferred under the control of the Syrian government. Russian commercial structures participated in the restoration of the plant. However, then the situation changed: control of the plant again passed to the Kurds, who let the Americans in. It was reported that the SDF ("Syrian Democratic Forces", which includes, in particular, Kurdish units) were not invited to the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi - Turkey objected to this. Now the SDF is targeting the Americans."

Syrian television released a story about the losses during the operations of the coalition aviation. Among the dead were a Syrian brigadier general named Yusuf Aisha Haider and several other high-ranking military officers. The Syrians talked about a hundred killed and wounded, without mentioning, however, PMCs in any way.

So far, several names of dead combatants from Russia have been named - Alexey Ladygin from Ryazan, Stanislav Matveev and Igor Kosoturov from the city of Asbest in the Sverdlovsk region, Vladimir Loginov from Kaliningrad. Also killed was the former National Bolshevik Kirill Ananiev, who fought in the Donbass before Syria.

Since there is still no information about hundreds of corpses among PMC mercenaries, many experts agree that only a few people died among them. The rest of the numerous victims are Syrians, who, according to some sources, were part of the ISIS HUNTER group (“Hunters for ISIS”). This special unit is mostly made up of Syrian Christians. They mainly specialize in the protection and protection of government facilities in the desert regions of the country. However, now they are being recruited to liberate gas and oil fields, as well as protect ammunition depots. In the city of Al-Sukailabiya, several dozens of funerals of the dead ISIS Hunter fighters were held, there are also photos from the cemetery...

There is still no law on private military companies in Russia, everything they do is only at their own peril and risk. They are usually hired by government agencies, and a business contract is concluded with them. The first combatants may have been under the delusion that they were going to the Middle East specifically to fight. “In my contract, for example, it was stated that I was going to guard communications and oil rigs. And immediately he got into the assault battalion, ”one of the mercenaries told MK. Now there are no illusions - they go to fight and, if anything, to die, they are paid for this. This special unit is mostly made up of Syrian Christians. They mainly specialize in the protection and protection of government facilities in the desert regions of the country. However, now they are being recruited to liberate gas and oil fields, as well as protect ammunition depots.

The average salary of a mercenary is from 150,000 to 200,000 rubles per month. It depends on which organization he was hired through - the more intermediaries, subcontractors of PMCs, the lower the prices. But in principle, they don’t deceive anyone - among the mercenaries there is a lot of word of mouth, everyone knows each other at least through someone, and if they cheat one, then no one else will go.

During the stay in the training camp near Rostov-on-Don, lifting tickets are also issued - 2-3 thousand rubles a day. Our Russians and Ukrainians from Donbass are considered a good acquisition for PMCs, since "they don't ask for much and usually serve in good conscience."

The Wagner Private Military Company is outlawed in Russia. They don't talk about it on state channels. But its fighters died in the Donbass and in Syria, and now they are probably working in Africa. DW has collected all the evidence about this PMC.

Three Russian journalists - Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguev and Orkhan Dzhemal - were killed in the Central African Republic (CAR) on Monday, July 30. The Russians went there to investigate the activities of the "private military company Wagner". Journalists and activists have collected a lot of information about her bit by bit over the past few years. DW presents all the most important things we have learned so far.

What is PMC Wagner

Where did Wagner come from and what are Prigozhin's interests

Evgeny Prigozhin

Where did Wagner's mercenaries fight?

PMC Wagner grew, as it is believed, from the military company "Slavic Corps", which carried out combat missions in Syria back in 2013. The future head of the PMC, Dmitry Utkin, call sign "Wagner", also belonged to the "Slavic Corps". The first evidence of the activities of PMC Wagner was recorded by the Ukrainian special services in May 2014 in the Donbass. In October 2017, the head of the SBU of Ukraine, Vasily Hrytsak, announced the involvement of the "Wagnerites" in the destruction of the military transport Il-76 in eastern Ukraine in June 2014, the storming of the Donetsk airport and the fighting near Debaltseve. There is no independent confirmation of this information.

PMC Wagner, according to various sources, twice participated in the liberation of Palmyra

Interests of Russian PMCs in Africa

Road to Sibut where Russian journalists were killed

Private army fighters: who are they

How they accept and how much they pay mercenaries

Where do mercenaries train?in Russia

Losses among mercenaries

See also:

From spring to war

In early 2011, the "Arab Spring" reached Syria, but the first peaceful demonstrations were brutally suppressed by the police. Then, starting on March 15, mass protests began to flare up across the country demanding the resignation of Bashar al-Assad. It was hardly imaginable that those events would set off a conflict that would drag on for eight long years and claim the lives of nearly half a million Syrians.