On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that Russian Colonel Ruslan Galitsky, who was helping a Syrian Army unit train servicemen, was killed in Syria’s Aleppo. The Russian military adviser died of wounds sustained in an attack by the so-called moderate Syrian opposition on a residential district in Aleppo.
Over the course of the counterterrorism operation in Syria, many Russian servicemen, including women, have sacrificed their own lives to destroy Daesh. Sputnik pays tribute to the Russian heroes and lists their names below. On December 5, two Russian nurses, First Sergeant Nadezhda Durachenko and Junior Sergeant Galina Mihaylova, were killed when a shelling hit a Russian mobile military hospital they worked in. Another medical worker, professor and specialist in child treatment, Vadim Arsentyev, received severe injuries. The Russian Defense Ministry views the shelling as a murder, committed by the so-called moderate opposition.
On August 1, a Russian MI-8 helicopter that was on a humanitarian mission was shot down in the Syrian province of Idlib. There were three crew members and two officers of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties on board. According to official information, all of them died, heroically trying to fly the aircraft away from populated areas and minimize casualties on the ground.
On July 22, it became known that Russian soldier Nikita Shevchenko died in the Syrian province of Aleppo. The serviceman was tasked with accompanying a humanitarian convoy carrying food and water to local residents. His car exploded when it came across an improvised explosive device hidden by terrorists near the village. The Russian medics on the ground were fought to keep him alive, but couldn’t save him. On July 8, Russian pilots and military instructors Ryafagat Khabibulin and Evgeny Dolgin were killed in Syria during a fly-off in the Palmyra area. On this day, a large group of Daesh militants attacked the positions of Syrian troops to the east of Palmyra and were on their way to seize strategic positions when Khabibulin and Dolgin decided to attack the terrorists. As result of their heroic move, the terrorist offensive was stopped, but both heroes died. On June 19, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported the death of Sergeant Andrey Timoshenkov who was escorting a humanitarian convoy of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties. The young man was killed while he tried to stop a car with a suicide bomber who was planning to carry out an attack on the residents of Homs province while they were receiving humanitarian aid. Timoshenkov died from severe injuries as result of the car exploding. In May, a soldier from Russia’s region of Kabardino-Balkaria — Asker Bizhoev — was killed during a combat mission in Syria. After his death, he was awarded the Order of Courage. On May 11, reports said that Russian soldier Anton Erygin was seriously injured in the province of Homs while he was on his mission to escort and support a humanitarian convoy of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties. He was immediately taken to hospital, but after two days he died due to serious injuries.
In early May, Russian contractor Junior Sergeant Mikhail Shirokopoyas was wounded in Aleppo province. He was supposed to stay in Syria for three months. The young man was taken to the Military Hospital in Moscow on a special Russian Defense Ministry plane. He died in the hospital on June 7.
On April 12, an Mi-28N helicopter of the Russian armed forces crashed in Syria in the province of Homs. According to media reports, the two pilots who were killed in the crash were graduates of Syzran Higher Military Aviation School, Andrei Okladnikov and Viktor Pankov. On March 24, Senior Lieutenant Alexander Prokhorenko was killed as he was carrying out a reconnaissance mission to provide intelligence for the Russian Air Force to attack Daesh targets near Palmyra. The officer ordered his comrades to carry out an air strike on his position after he was discovered and surrounded by Daesh terrorists, a story which led to the international press naming him the “Russian Rambo” for his act of heroism. Alexander, who was 25 years old, was married. Before he left for Syria he found out that his wife was expecting their first child.
On February 1, Russian military adviser Ivan Cheremisin was killed during an attack carried out by Daesh on one of the military garrisons in Syria.
On November 25, 2015, Russian officer and gun-layer Fedor Zhuravlev died while performing his military service in Syria. His task was to coordinate air strikes by the Russian Air Force. The man was buried in a village in the Bryansk region.
On November 24, 2015, a Russian Su-24 bomber was shot down over Syria by the Turkish Air Force. Pilot Oleg Peshkov and navigator Konstantin Murakhtin managed to eject before the plane hit the ground in an area where fighting raged between the Syrian army and terrorists. Peshkov was killed by militants in mid-air after he ejected over jihadist positions. Murakhtin was able to hold out for 12 hours on enemy territory and was eventually rescued by Russian marines and Syrian commandos.
During the rescue operation Russian marine Alexander Pozynich was killed when one of Russia’s helicopters involved in the operation was hit by small arms fire and made an emergency landing on militant-controlled territory.