The execution of a Wagner PMC convoy in Syria. Slaughterhouse for oil
During the First Chechen War, many dramatic events took place, as a result of which many Russian soldiers died in an absurd and terrible death, suffered, and were physically and spiritually mutilated. Analyzing the known facts and eyewitness accounts, as well as seeing the measures taken by the leaders of our country and the armed forces, it becomes very difficult to convince themselves that the main fault for what happened in those days does not lie with their conscience.
In the early spring of 1996, two major defeats of Russian troops occurred almost simultaneously. On March 31, in the Nozhai-Yurt district of Chechnya, near the village of Benoy, a convoy of paratroopers from the 104th division, marching towards the administrative center of Vedeno, was shot. There were many killed and even more wounded soldiers. It seemed that the army command would draw the appropriate conclusions…. But already on April 16, the militants struck a new blow, which again turned out to be extremely successful for them. In the Grozny region of Chechnya, north of the village of Yarysh-Mardy, Shatoi bandits attacked a column of the 245th motorized rifle regiment. The battle, or rather the massacre, the massacre, lasted about four hours, until Khattab and Gelayev with their people freely left their positions. The terrorists filmed the results of the battle. It can still be found on the Internet today.
Moving away from the usual format of the article, let's try to convey the madness and chaos going on that day in the words of eyewitnesses ...
Marking Easter on April 14, another column on Shatoi was organized at the central base of the 245th motorized rifle regiment. She was supposed to bring a young replenishment, as well as material and technical means for the needs of the military unit. On Monday, April 15th, the convoy reached Khankala without hindrance and stopped there for the night. On the same night, the approaching detachments of militants organized an ambush near the village of Yarysh-Mardy. For two kilometers along the route, they built more than twenty firing positions. Warehouses with ammunition were prepared, mines were installed on the road. The number of Chechen separatists, according to various estimates, ranged from eighty to one hundred and sixty people.
On Tuesday morning, the federal forces moving out of Khankala carried out the prescribed measures for the movement of the convoy. The reconnaissance company looked after the Argun gorge, and the gunners made contact with their brothers from the 324th regiment. After that, the column set off.
From the memoirs of the sniper Denis Tsiryulnik: “We had one sign - if we come across men, women and children on the road, then everything is in order. If only women, then wait for an ambush. So that day we came across some women and children. "
Having passed the settlement of Dachu-Borzoi, at around 2 pm local time, the column reached the village of Yarysh-Mardy, stretching out on a narrow mountain serpentine. The length of the column, as it turned out later, was almost one and a half kilometers. When the first shots sounded, its head disappeared behind the next bend in the road, and the rear passed the bridge over the bed of the narrow river Argun.
Denis Barber: “We drove, told jokes. Everyone was calm. And then somewhere in front of the column there was an explosion. We saw how a tank turret was thrown from behind a hill. Then a second explosion thundered. The third was already in front of our liqueur. (A filling is a fuel truck. In a column, filling containers have always been the main goal of militants. Driving a filling container was considered one of the most heroic professions. Here and below, the author's notes). The explosion tore off the hood and knocked out the glass. I was concussed and entangled in the door handles. When I managed to get out of the cab, I immediately ran fifteen meters away, found some kind of hole in the side of the road and shoved my backside there. The fire was very dense. When the first shock passed, I began to observe how things are. "
It all began after a tank equipped with a trawl leading the convoy was blown up by a mine of enormous power, equipped with a remote control. Another land mine was later found in the tail of the column, but fortunately it did not work. In general, seven unexploded landmines were found on the route from the attack site to Shatoi the next day. As soon as the tank was neutralized, the militants hiding on both sides of the gorge opened fire. Submachine gunners, machine gunners and snipers fired at the convoy. Grenades and mines flew at our soldiers. The tank in the rear of the column received several hits from a grenade launcher. But only after he was knocked down by the tower, he began to retreat, backing up. Thus, he managed to get out of the battle.
According to senior sergeant Igor Izotov: “I was in the third truck. When the head tank exploded, I instinctively ducked, and at this time a machine-gun burst pierced the windshield. Everyone quickly jumped out of our Ural, firing at random. I squeeze in between the rocks and the front BMP. This saved my life and several other guys. The rest were less fortunate. Our sniper was shot through both legs with a machine gun. He shouted, blocking the shooting, there was a sea of blood, tendons and bits of bone protruded from the wounds. We pulled him away, and all the time he tried to grab my hair, as if trying to stay in this world. Later he died. "
The bandits planned everything competently. The BMP and BRDM (armored reconnaissance and patrol vehicle) following the tank were shot at point-blank range from a rifle in the first minutes of the battle. The head of the column, Major Terzovets, and the artillery spotter, Captain Vyatkin, were killed. The shots of snipers cut short the lives of the aviation spotter and the driver of the reconnaissance vehicle. The column at one point was cut off from the outside world, without the support of aviation and artillery. On the VHF range of the radio network, the Chechen militants set up an active interference, which completely deprived the fighters of communication with the command. From pre-prepared firing points, located at a height on both sides of the road, the bandits with dagger fire destroyed the equipment and personnel of the regiment for several hours.
Returning to the story of the contract soldier Denis Baryulnik: “A grenade flew past me and hit the bottle that was driving behind us. The filler caught fire. I figured it would be very hot when it exploded. Gathered and crossed the road, hiding behind concrete blocks near the bridge. That's how I lay and wondered where the command had gone. And all around the smoke, explosions, indiscriminate shooting. You can't see anything through the scope. Nearby flowed a one and a half meter river of burning kerosene. Its flame was unbearably hot. I saw how in the "Ural" nearby the charges for the self-propelled guns began to explode. Behind him burned another "Ural" with high-explosive shells, which, fortunately, did not detonate entirely. Explosions scattered them in all directions. Suddenly, something exploded in the car, and the rear axle flew up eighty meters by a candle ”.
The soldiers burned to death, not having time to get out of the machines fired by "Bumblebees" (disposable jet flamethrowers of domestic production).
The soldiers, riding on sacks of food, immediately became an excellent target for the bandits. A large number of vehicles with fuel in the convoy also played into the hands of the enemy. Exploding, they destroyed all living things around them, burning fuel scattered everywhere. The shell-shocked soldiers trying to get out of the way were finished off by snipers. The militants destroyed trucks with ammunition from RPGs, and those carrying food were fired at from small arms.
From the story of senior warrant officer Sergei Cherchik: “I moved and immediately the bullet pierced my heel. The "Dukhovsky" sniper obviously realized that I was alive. I managed to crawl under the car, didn't abandon the machine gun, and dragged it along. And the sniper started shooting at the wheels so that the car settled down and crushed me. Nearby, a shell from a grenade launcher exploded, a shrapnel hit me in the thigh. I’m lying down, I can’t think of anything, and the bridge of a car will crush that and look. At the last moment, one contractor pulled me by the collar. The technique is all in flames, burning diesel fuel is dripping from above. The sniper takes out the soldier, interrupts his kneecap. In a moment, two of us were already being dragged by another conscript.
It was lucky for those who, in the first minutes of the battle, managed to find dead zones, where Chechen fighters could not get. Many soldiers jumped from a high cliff near a dry river, fleeing enemy bullets. The next day, scouts combing the gorge and exploring the banks of the Argun found their bodies. Some tried to hide from the fire under the cars. But even there they got snipers. Where the Chechen separatists could not hit our soldiers directly, they ricocheted. One group of fighters escaped by hiding in a drainage pipe under the road, another was able to run and take a position in the foundation of a house under construction located nearby.
And again from the notes of Denis Barber: “When the smoke cleared, I started looking for targets. I saw in the scope how a "dushara" was swarming about one and a half hundred meters from us. He took it off the first time. He shot another one nearby, but I'm not sure what he killed. The bullet hit the parapet, behind which he was hiding at chest level. But the "spirit" disappeared. He began to look through the scope again. On the roll one of them "on four bones" crawled uphill. First shot in the milk. He moved immediately faster, but did not have time to escape. The second, like a kick in the ass, threw him over his head. "
After the command of the 245th motorized rifle regiment learned about the attack on the convoy, an order was given ... not to do anything until the instructions from above. Only at the beginning of the fourth (local time) did the order come to break through to the column. The first to advance were the soldiers of the reconnaissance company blocking the Argun Gorge. The scouts were few, and near the village of Yarysh-Mardy the militants met them. Pinned down by dense fire, the guys were never able to approach the place of the main battle. An hour later, the leadership of the federal forces in the region made a new attempt to unblock the ambushed convoy. An armored group of Lieutenant Colonel Miroshnichenko, the former commander of the second motorized rifle battalion of the 245th regiment, was sent to her aid. It consisted of two tanks and three infantry fighting vehicles. Despite the fact that the armored group also came under fire, it managed to break through and reach the battlefield.
A word to Sergei Cherchik: “Again, the three of us are lying under the bottom of the car. Everyone ran out of cartridges, and my machine gun was broken - two bullets hit the bolt carrier. From the mountain they often shouted: "Surrender, Russians." While the smoke was going on, and we were not visible, no one fired. The smoke passed - they started shooting again. The explosion from the grenade launcher, thank God, did not get it. No one then hoped that they would remain alive. I took a grenade, straightened the pin. I decided, if anything, I pull. If only not to be taken prisoner. And in my soul it crushes so much, such sorrow ... For what I suffer ... Suddenly such a powerful explosion. Everything in my head buzzed, my ears rang. It turned out that ammunition exploded in an infantry fighting vehicle burning nearby. A helmet rolled under our car. And there was silence. And then our turntables flew up! I saw two of them myself. At first they went high, and then they came down and began to hit the mountains with rockets. And then the artillery from the 324th regiment joined in. "
At six o'clock in the evening, Miroshnichenko's armored group, firing at the adjacent heights from infantry fighting vehicles and tanks, approached the convoy. The personnel immediately began evacuating the wounded. At about the same time, an armored group from the 324th regiment approached, and with it a detachment of scouts, battered by militants. The sixth motorized rifle company drove up from the village of Goiskoye in five infantry fighting vehicles. But by this time the battle had already ended, and the detachments of Chechen fighters fled.
Denis Barber: “I decided to get out of this hell, I ran into the greenhouse. Distributed with a friend of the sectors of fire. I fired at the front, and he covered the rear ... It was getting dark, but there was still no help. Now, I think, the "spirits" will descend and that's it, crap. Here artillery started working, neatly along the slopes, without touching either the village or us. Then four Mi-24s flew in and fired at the mountains. It was already dark when we heard a terrible rumble from the direction of the 324th regiment. Help rolled in. Ahead was a tank, followed by an infantry fighting vehicle, then a tank again. A lot of people jumped up from this technique - reconnaissance of the 324th. Together with them we moved to the head of the column. As I walked, I counted more than forty burnt bodies. After the first inspection of the damaged equipment, it turned out that the spirits had a clear picture of where and what we had. They did not touch the medical MT-LB (light armored multipurpose transporter) at all, they only shot the mechanic, and turned the Zushka into a sieve behind him. When we asked why the help came so late, the guys from the 324th regiment replied that there was an order from their superiors not to twitch and stand still. At the head of the column, one BRDM resisted to the last, in which almost all were killed. If help had come early, then perhaps there would have been more survivors. "
In the fragments of the video footage of the bandits, filmed, according to experts, for sponsors, you can see the burnt, broken and overturned equipment of the destroyed column. The armed militants are very pleased, they are talking loudly and posing on the wrecked cars. In the ditch lies an inverted BPM, next to it is the Ural, overturned on its side, behind it is another and another. There is a shot BMP in the river, bread is scattered near the burnt-out truck ...
Senior Sergeant Igor Izotov: “The smell at the battle site was sickening. When I returned to the burnt out "Ural", I immediately found my friend Seryoga. Even at the beginning, hiding behind a stone, I saw him running for cover. The first burst broke his legs, the second pierced his torso. In a kind of dullness, I kept trying to feel the pulse on Seregin's bloody body. I woke up when they pushed me in the back. I plunged the corpse into the Ural that drove up and only then looked around. The rest of the survivors also found acquaintances and friends. Someone at the same time terribly swore obscenities, someone screamed in tears, one soldier vomited when they pulled out the disfigured, charred body of a tanker. Everybody was possessed by a wild horror ... ".
Officially, the convoy consisted of a little less than two hundred people, but there were also unaccounted for demobilization-conscripts, and soldiers going home for family reasons. In addition, civilians took part in the battle on the side of the federal forces, who accompanied the convoy, joining in the settlements. Later, it was very difficult to calculate the exact number of those killed, which, according to various estimates, varies from 73 to 95 people. Each of them died in their own way. Someone instantly, in the first seconds of the battle, someone on the side of the road near exploding cars, firing back to the last bullet, someone burning alive in trucks. Most of the corpses were almost completely burned. People were identified by socks, pieces of documents, personal numbers. They could not find out the identity of about three dozen fighters on the spot. Their bodies were sent to a special laboratory in Rostov. Fifty people were wounded, and only thirteen soldiers survived the battle completely unharmed. And everyone who is lucky to survive admits that this was probably the most terrible day in their lives ...
There are fewer disagreements in the number of destroyed equipment - one tank, six infantry fighting vehicles, one reconnaissance and patrol vehicle, about fourteen trucks. The losses of the militants remained unknown, however, in the following days, seven bodies were found in the vicinity that belonged to residents of the Shatoi region.
Sergei Cherchik described the rescue operation as follows: “I don’t know how much time has passed since the start of the attack. When our first soldiers appeared from the side of the 324th regiment, it was already dark. For some reason, the militants did not shoot the medical "motoliga" of the column. And they began to collect us, the wounded, and put them in it. Six or eight people fit inside. The dead were laid on the armor. An unknown soldier got into the cockpit, began to unfold the "motorcycle league", drove back, but the road was too narrow. The car hovered over a cliff. I remember how I had time to think that I had not survived for this. All those killed from above, ten to fifteen people, fell down to Argun. Then the driver did the taxi and put the car on the road. "
According to official information, the use of artillery by the 245th motorized rifle regiment began at 16:00, and the 324th regiment opened fire at five in the evening. On April 16, the artillerymen of the 245th regiment consumed 669 shells, the 324th regiment - 332 shells. On April 17, in order to evacuate the remaining damaged equipment to the base center and clear the route, another armored group set out under the leadership of the regiment commander, Colonel Romanikhin. The place of the battle looked creepy. The flames had already subsided, and the cars in the column stood covered with soot and burned out like ghosts.
The chief of artillery of the 245th motorized rifle regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Boris Kramchenkov, was also present in that raid: “We arrived early in the morning, but the 'spirits' were already waiting. There was a fog that disguised us. This made it possible to more or less calmly remove the burnt-out equipment. We evacuated everything that could still be useful, and pushed the rest into a cliff. At the same time, the bodies of those killed were found. They were all burnt. All were wrapped in foil and taken to the base camp of the regiment. "
An official investigation was carried out into the attack of Khattab's militants on the column of the 245th motorized rifle regiment in the Yarysh-Marda area. Due to the surprising naivety (or negligence) of our leadership after the conclusion of the agreement on the prohibition of hostilities and the long absence of attacks in the region, all checkpoints were removed, and the vigilance of the federal forces dropped noticeably. Already on the march, the 245th motorized rifle regiment behaved extremely recklessly, not properly organizing the foot reconnaissance of the road and the surrounding area, which, most likely, could have discovered the landmines installed by the militants in advance. There was also no air cover. Side outposts were not set up at potentially dangerous points, and favorable heights next to the route were not occupied. Already later, after the start of the battle, the command, for unknown reasons, delayed for too long with permission to begin artillery shelling. In general, "why" during the investigation of the reasons for what happened, a lot arose. For example, why was it not allowed to advance in time to the aid of a nearby armored group, which could distract the militants and block their escape routes. Why did helicopters arrive so late? Why were the checkpoints of the 324th regiment near the village of Yarysh-Mardy removed from the nearby heights just a couple of days before?
The militants chose the site for the ambush for a reason. They knew about the peace treaty signed on April 4, 1996 between the representatives of the authorities of the village of Yarysh-Mardy and the command of the federal troops. They also knew that the village of Yarysh-Mardy was located at the limit of the maximum firing range of the gunners. It turns out that the Chechen separatists knew a lot suspiciously, but the results of the counterintelligence work were not disclosed to the general public. But the investigation into the shooting of the column of the 245th regiment was soon terminated. The perpetrators of the case were never found. Khattab and Gelayev were later destroyed.
To the children who fell on that fateful day, eternal memory!
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The dual power that developed in Chechnya in 1991, which declared itself a sovereign republic, led to a confrontation with the federal government and internal conflicts in the struggle for power, which ended with the introduction of Russian troops in December 1994. So it began to participate in which not all the military leadership of the country wanted. But if the generals could resign and avoid being sent to the North Caucasus, then the conscripts and junior officers simply had no choice. In a hurry, regiments were replenished and sent off to carry out a combat mission in Chechnya. The 245th, who lost a significant part of its personnel in the course of hostilities, did not escape this fate. The most dramatic battle was the battle near the village of Yaryshmardy on April 16, 1996, which took place exactly twenty years ago.
245th SME
The 245th regiment has the rank of Guards for its heroic history during the Great Patriotic War. Quartered in the Nizhny Novgorod region, within ten days of January 1995 after the failed operation of the federal forces to capture Grozny, he began to actively replenish with military recruits under wartime conditions. Its contingent has grown 10 times and amounted to 1,700 people due to the recruitment from the KDVO (Red Banner Far Eastern Military District). In addition to recruits, volunteers who had not received the necessary training were also conscripted. On the eve of entering Chechnya, the fighters did not have a single joint exercise to work out interaction.
Considering that already in the North Caucasus 4 sets of officers will be replaced in the regiment, it becomes clear from his example that the army was not prepared for participation in the First Chechen campaign and was doomed to losses. Only killed in 245 SMRs, they will be 220 people, including the son of Lieutenant General Pulikovsky (December 1995) and those guys who laid down their heads during another 20 military operations. The bloodiest battle was near the village of Yashmardy, which caused a huge public outcry.
In the war zone
The 245th MRR was always at the forefront, participating in the assault on Prigorodnoye (Grozny), Goisky, Vedeno, Arkhtan-Yurt, Shatoi and Gotov. Since the spring of the 95th, the regiment settled not far from Shatoi, guarded roads and was on duty at checkpoints. The soldiers accompanied the transport convoys carrying fuel, food and civilians. Beginning in February 1995, after the encirclement and blocking of Dudayev's main troops in the South-East group of forces, strange events related to concessions to the separatists began to occur more and more often.
During the operation to capture Shatoi in June 1995, a column of the 245th regiment was ambushed near the village of Zona in the Argun Gorge. This happened due to the carelessness of the leadership and the lack of pedestrian reconnaissance. Despite the losses, this fact remained almost unnoticed in the general jubilation associated with the capture of Shatoy. But this was the first call to the tragedy, which went down in history as the battle at Yaryshmarda. On March 31, 1996, a convoy of paratroopers near the village of Benoy, on their way to Vedeno, was shot, but this did not prompt the command to increase security measures when passing through the gorge.
What preceded the April events
On April 4, the administration of the village of Yaryshmardy signed a peace treaty with the federal troops, which imposed a ban on the conduct of hostilities in the area. On the basis of a document from the chief of staff of the 324th Rifle Regiment, which controlled the section of the road to Shatoi, a checkpoint 500 meters from the village was removed. The regiment commander was not informed.
The battle at Yaryshmarda will take place in the context of an order from the Minister of Defense on the use of artillery only in case of self-defense and a complete refusal to participate in aviation on the territory of Chechnya. He came through secret communication channels about ten days before the convoy left Khankala.
The shot column
The central base of the 245th MRP prepared a convoy on Shatoi, the purpose of which was to deliver material and technical means, fuel and young reinforcements to the military unit. The convoy was joined by the demobilized and sent home for family reasons. There is information that there were also soldiers' mothers looking for their missing children. From Goiskoye, 4 cars of the 324th MRP joined them. The rear column under the command of Major Terzovets left on April 15, right after Easter. After spending the night in Khankala, by the middle of the next day, cars and military equipment passed Dacha-Borzoi and Yaryshmardy, stretching for 1.5-2 km. Ahead was a narrow mountain serpentine, which is commonly called "mother-in-law's tongue".
The reconnaissance controlled the artillery spotter kept in touch with the 324th MRR, and this was all that was done to protect people and military equipment. The battle at Yaryshmarda was filmed by the militants themselves, whose material became public. Against the background of the singing of birds and the conversations of the detachment of Jordanian Khattab and Ruslan Gelayev, the hum of cars is heard. It can be seen from behind the branches from the cliff, as the awning "Ural", a filler, an armored personnel carrier appear. The distance between cars is about 20 meters. And suddenly the silence is broken by explosions, and then gunfire. With dense fire from a height, invisible behind the greenery and a curtain of smoke, the militants shoot at point-blank range the Russian convoy. The video recorded the time - 13 hours 23 minutes. These are the minutes when the battle at Yaryshmarda began.
Battle scheme
The presented diagram shows that the militants were deliberately waiting for the convoy, equipping up to 20 points for a fire strike. Trenches were specially dug in the rocks, which is a very time-consuming task. All the places where the gang of Khattab and Gelayev are stationed are equipped with a sufficient number of weapons. They are located on both sides, which allows you to shoot through all sections of the path. Radio-controlled land mines are installed on the road in the direction of traffic. An ideal location for the attack due to the bend that hides the head transport from the tail of the column. The road in this place is so narrow that it is impossible for the tankers or trucks to turn around to leave the scene of the battle.
On the left there is an almost sheer cliff, on the right there is a cliff about five meters high, under which the Argun River flows. During the heavy fire, some of the soldiers managed to jump into the dry river. Those who did not crash during the fall were finished off by snipers, which made it impossible to escape. The trap for the transport convoy slammed shut when the tank at the head was blown up by a land mine and an explosion was heard at the end of the procession. The bandits hit the target clearly, shooting in the first minutes of the battle the infantry fighting vehicles and armored reconnaissance vehicles leading the column. Senior Major Terezovets, a radio operator and an artillery spotter were killed. Company 245 MRP found itself without communication with the outside world (there was a special interference in the VHF range), without control and support from artillery and aviation. The battle at Yaryshmarda turned into a real massacre for Russian soldiers and officers.
1996: tragic events through the eyes of eyewitnesses
According to the 245th MRR, during the bloody events, 73 people died, 52 were wounded, 6 infantry fighting vehicles, 1 armored reconnaissance vehicle, 11 vehicles were destroyed. "Komsomolskaya Pravda" published an article, which lists 95 dead, taking into account the demobilized and those who joined the convoy, whose presence was not officially recorded by anyone. It is easy to believe in this, because the mother of the deceased machine gunner Oleg Ogoreltsev, one of the demobilized, had to search for her son in Chechnya for a month and she was able to identify the corpse in Rostov only after meeting with the surviving participants in the dramatic events. Thirty bodies were taken out of the battlefield without the possibility of identification: the guys burned out like torches after direct hits from grenade launchers into the nalivniki and infantry fighting vehicles. What do eyewitnesses say about the battle at Yaryshmarda?
Sniper Denis Barber, a contract soldier, says that after the smoke cleared, the surviving soldiers resisted until the last bullet in conditions of almost zero visibility. After the battle, seven corpses of militants - residents of the Shatoy region will be found. Only at 6 o'clock in the evening, the armored group of Miroshnichenko and the 324th MRR, as well as a battered reconnaissance detachment, made their way to the column. By this time, the Chechens and Arab mercenaries participating in the Khattab gang had already fled. Only one question was asked: why did help come so late? The head BRDM resisted to the last, the guys could have stayed alive. To which the answer followed: the command of the regiment was waiting for instructions from above, and the groups began to make their way to help only at four o'clock. The turntables that flew up beat the mountains, the artillery beat down, but there were no more militants on the slopes.
Igor Izotov, who was in the third truck, said that those who managed to squeeze into the patch between the front BMP and the rocks, which became the only dead zone for the enemy, survived. The guys were getting out from under the cars by snipers, firing ricocheted against the asphalt.
The wounded Sergei Cherchik recalls that, despite the fire, there was mutual assistance between the soldiers. He, wounded by a shrapnel, was pulled out from under the car by a contract soldier, and when he was hit in the kneecap, a conscript soldier saved two of them.
Eternal memory to the lost
The fact that the convoy was expected and that Khattab had complete information about its composition is evidenced by the fact that the most important vehicles were hit by land mines and grenade launchers. The medical vehicle remained intact. The wounded were gathered in it, and the bodies of the dead were laid on the armor. When the MTLB began to unfold, its wheels hovered over the cliff. The driver miraculously managed to straighten the car, but the bodies of the already dead guys fell into Argun. All morning on the 17th, they cleared the road, finding seven more unexploded land mines. Burnt trucks were thrown off a cliff, looking for things and personal numbers of soldiers. Thus ended the almost four-hour battle at Yaryshmarda.
The death toll of 245 SMRs includes 11 officers, including the artillery spotter Captain Vyatkin, who met death in the first minutes of the battle, Captain Lakhin, Major Milovanov, 2 warrant officers and 27 soldiers and sergeants. Among them, 8 33 remained unidentified, and for a long time their names, like the machine gunner Ogoreltsev, were established with the help of their parents and relatives. A memory book is posted on the website of 245 SMEs, and a monument to those who fulfilled their lives at the cost of their lives is erected in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Official investigation
The mass death of the personnel of 245 SMEs became the subject of an official investigation, as a result of which the prosecutor's office appeared in the State Duma, which did not see the corpus delicti in the actions of officials. Rokhlin blamed the country's leadership and the Ministry of Defense for not controlling the situation in Chechnya and for allowing the manifestation of disorder, which resulted in the death of the military. He pointed to a loss of vigilance, tactical illiteracy and a lack of interaction between the 245th and 324th SMEs. But no one, including the regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel Romanikhin, was punished for the dramatic battle at Yaryshmarda.
20 years later
On May 5, 1996, the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" published the first article about the tragedy with the column of the 245th SMR, which on the sidelines immediately began to be called sold. In a video message, Khattab openly speaks of the venality of some of the high-ranking officers. But you cannot believe him, a thorough judicial investigation is needed, which should answer the question of the reasons for the terrible coincidences and the mass death of soldiers. But to date, no such proceedings have been carried out. One of the mysteries of the First Chechen War is the April battle at Yaryshmarda. Military secrets have been closely guarded since the time when the participants in the events were strictly forbidden to convey the details and details of the terrible tragedy to everyone, including journalists. Today their memoirs have been published, but they do not contain answers to the main question: why is the command not responsible for the lives of its soldiers? ..
The details of the battle became known, in which, according to unverified data, beat over 200 people, including from the Russian private military company PMC Wagner... Confirmation of losses among Russians began to come only today, almost a week after that "meat grinder".
The fact of the appearance in hospitals of Moscow and St. Petersburg of Russians wounded in Syria, who are not from the Armed Forces of our country, has been officially confirmed. Testimonies from relatives of the victims are beginning to appear on social media, and Kommersant's military sources say on the death of 11 Russian citizens from the PMCs near Deir ez-Zor on February 7. Who, what and why got there, we.
Russian "volunteers" in Syria
To stop speculating on this topic, or, conversely, to savor his success, he decided Commander of the United States Air Force in Syria Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigan. Clash in the area of the CONOCO oil field (discovered by the Americans) and the oil refinery (built by the Americans, but nationalized by Assad) General called the protection of what we won from ISIS(prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation).
The goal of the Americans in the area was simple - return oil and cash flow, in which they invested, then lost as a result of nationalization, then the "barmaley" hoisted on it the black banner of the Caliphate, and then returned to its original position with the help of the so-called. "Moderate opposition." And so, they are sitting quietly at the plant, pumping Syrian oil, driving it in an unknown direction ... and suddenly they notice the accumulation of unfriendly forces that are determined to "squeeze" the business of the Americans (intelligence is not asleep).
The attack was not unexpected... The coalition observed unhurried build-up of personnel a week before the attack... We informed the Russian side that SDF and coalition forces are in the area.
According to the general, the coalition forces have no other enemy in Syria than the terrorists of the pseudo-caliphate, but if someone threatens the Americans (or decides to take their money) ... well, you get the message.
Organized attack Syrian units and up to three companies of fighters (unconfirmed) began in the evening of February 7... With the support of tanks, artillery, mortars and MLRS, the pro-Syrian militias quite easily crushed the first line of the SDF defense (the Syrian Democratic Forces, by the way, are being trained by their American partners).
F-22 "Raptor" (top) and F-15E "Eagle" (bottom)
When the smell of kerosene smelled from the side of the Euphrates, the Americans decided to call the Russians ...
We immediately contacted Russian representatives on special lines to alert them of an unprovoked attack on SDF and coalition positions. After that, the leadership of the coalition approved the strikes.
But then it becomes interesting. The general lists the military equipment used by his department: fighters F-22 "Raptor", drones MQ-9 "Reaper", attack helicopters AH-64 "Apache", fighter-bombers F-15E, close fire support aircraft AC-130E Specter, attention, strategic bombers B-52 "Stratospheric Fortress".
MQ-9 "Reaper"
Believe in the words of the general that within their a kind of fight against ISIS in Syria, the F-22 and the MQ-9 UAV patrolled in the coalition's area of responsibility, it is quite possible. Couple episodes with "Raptors" and our Su-35S... The constant presence of attack UAVs in the air is a mandatory attribute of the American method of waging war on any continent. "Apaches", most likely (although the general said that after the start of the retreat, the fire was stopped). The main weapon of helicopters AH-64- anti-tank missiles Hellfire have proven themselves well in recent battles.
A video of the American strike on the positions of the Syrian units has been published. The one in which many "Wagnerians" perished Destruction of the T-72 tank and the M-30 (D-30) howitzer # Syria # Gazbita # T72 # Tank # Chvkvagner # PMC
AC-130E Specter.
Fire support aircraft ( ) AC-130E Specter. They are used, among other things, for AC-130 transport aircraft. There was no information about the modification with machine-gun and cannon armament before. Principle of operation this machine is simple. The pilots begin to circle over the target, "tilting" the plane with the "armed" side towards the target, and, like in a computer game, they destroy all life on earth with impunity, observing the results on the computer screen. The aircraft is quite vulnerable to air defense weapons, which were not in service with the attackers. Something like this.
Trophy footage (of very poor quality) of the shooting of a convoy of 245 SMRs in Chechnya on April 16, 1996. 4 parts in total
We started at about 14.00. At 14.10 Chishki passed and before the entrance to the gorge they pulled the locks. Arkasha says: "Look, some women and children." And just yesterday, the guys from the 324th regiment told me: "If there are men, women and children on the road, everything is fine. If only women are crazy, there will be an ambush soon."
The column stretched out in "mother-in-law" (this is a serpentine). On it, the pouches barely unfolded, and the MAZs, which were pulling the faulty equipment, do not know how they passed at all. Everything is quiet, calm. Let's go, we poison jokes. We passed the Yaryshmards, the head of the column had already gone around the bend, the nalivniki passed the bridge over the dry riverbed. And then - an explosion in front, we look - because of the hillock, the tank's turret was thrown, the second explosion was also somewhere in the head of the column, and the third one just banged between the one in front and our nalivnik. The explosion tore off the hood, knocked out the windows. That was the first time I was concussed. Arkasha had already got out of the car, and I got confused in two door handles - well, I just went crazy. Finally fell out of the cockpit. The fire is very dense, but I already started to think and ran about 15 meters from the liqueur, despite the fire of the spirits. I found some kind of recess in the side of the road, shoved my butt there. Nearby, a conscript lay down. The first shock has passed - I can see how things are going. But things are not important. The crimps stood on the road. The guys from the platoon of nalivniks are firing back in all directions as they can, where the spirits are, is still unclear. Arkasha soaks into the white light from under the wheel of his liqueur.
Then a grenade would bounce past me into the bottle that was walking behind us. The filler is on fire. I estimate that if it explodes now, we will all be very hot. I'm trying to figure out where this thing came from. I looked like someone was swarming about 170 meters away from us. I looked into the scope, and the "dushara" was already preparing a new grenade ... I knocked him down from the first shot, I liked it myself. I start looking for the target in the crosshair. Another "odor" is sitting in the trench, pouring water from a machine gun. I fired, but I can't say with certainty whether I killed or not, because the bullet struck the upper edge of the breastwork at chest level, behind which he was sitting. The spirit disappeared. Either I got him, or he decided not to tempt fate anymore. Again, I led the sight, I look, on the roll the spirit "on four bones" crawls up the hill. I only scared him with the first shot. He moved his limbs more actively, but did not have time to escape. The second shot, like a good kick in the ass, threw him over his head.
While I was firing at the spirits, Arkasha drove the burning liqueur and threw it off the road. I listened, like the machine gun was working. Something was set on fire from behind, and black smoke went in our direction along the gorge, because of it, not a fig is visible in the sight. Dmitry and I figured - that was the name of the conscript - that it was time for us to get out of here. We got together and rushed across the road, fell over the concrete blocks in front of the bridge. You can't raise your head, and the machine-gunner, meanwhile, is hammering on the liquid filling, and not unsuccessfully. He set them on fire. We are lying with Dima, and a river of burning kerosene, a meter and a half wide, flows past us towards the bridge. The heat is unbearable from the flame, but, as it turned out, this is not the worst thing. When the fiery river reached the "Ural" with charges for the self-propelled guns, all this stuff began to explode. I saw some things fly out of the car with rags. Dima explained that these were lighting shells. We lay there, counting: Dima said that there were about 50 of them in the car. Meanwhile, the second "Ural" with high-explosive shells caught fire. It is good that he did not detonate entirely, the shells were thrown to the sides by explosions.
I lie down and think: "Damn, why is it that nobody commands us?" As it turned out later, Khattab planned everything so competently that literally at the very beginning of the battle, all the controls, which were traveling in two command and staff vehicles, were mowed down by small arms fire, and the command and staff units themselves remained untouched during the entire battle.
Suddenly, in the second "Ural" with high-explosive ammunition, something exploded so that the rear axle with one wheel with a candle went up 80 meters, and, according to our considerations, it had to flop right on us. Well, we think we have sailed. However, he was lucky: he fell about ten meters away. Everything is in smoke, everything is exploding. You can't see anything through the scope because of the smoke. The shooting was indiscriminate, but the spirit machine gunner stood out against the general background. We decided to get out of this total hell, ran into the greenhouse. We distributed the firing sectors with Dima. I fire at the front, and he covers my rear and looks so that the spirits do not go from above. They crawled out to the edge, and the spirits from the RPG were beating at the tank, which was in the tail of the column. Eight times they hit, but to no avail. Then, nevertheless, they pierced the tower from the side of the commander's hatch. Smoke poured out of it. Apparently, the crew was wounded, and the mechanic began to back up. So he went backwards through the entire column and, they say, got to the regiment.
An hour has passed since the start of the battle. The shooting began to subside. I say: "That's it, Dima, we are pulling at the end of the column!" We ran under the bridge, I saw there were some in "Afghans", about seven people, two corpses next to them. We run up. One of those sitting turns around. Oh my God! He has a black beard, a crooked nose and wild eyes. I throw up my rifle, press the trigger ... The others turn - ours. Okay, I didn't. The contractor turned out to be bearded. He sits in a daze without me, stutters, he can’t say anything. I shout: "Uncle, I almost flunked you!" And he doesn't get it.
The BMP "lame" is crawling in our direction, collecting the wounded. She was hit by a torsion bar, and she stumbles around. They threw the wounded inside, drove onto the road - they burn out around the car, something bursts in them. The firefight has almost died down.
Let's go. Somewhere closer to Argun on the road, men shout: "Guys! We have wounded here. Help!" I jumped down to them, and the car went on. I go up to the guys. They say: "We have a major wounded." The major is sitting in camouflage, with the Marine Corps insignia on his sleeve. A through wound in the arm and chest. All pale from loss of blood. The only thing I had was a tourniquet. I pulled his hand. We talked, it turned out that he was the political officer of the battalion in the Pacific Fleet. At this time, one of the guys remembered that they were carrying beer, cigarettes, juice, etc. in the car. I covered the guys, and they ran and brought all this stuff. We lie down, drink beer, smoke. It's beginning to get dark. I think: "Now it will get dark, the spirits will descend, there is no help, and we are freaking out!" We decided to choose a better position. We took a liking to a hillock, occupied it, we lay, we wait. The guys from the RMO show me the situation. The vehicles with ammunition were burnt from RPGs, and those with food were simply chopped off from small arms.
Either help will come ...
The artillery started working, very carefully, only along the slopes, and without touching either the settlement or us. Then four Mi-24s came and worked in the mountains. It got dark. We hear, from the side of the 324th regiment - an eerie roar. It turns out that help is rolling. Ahead is the T-72, followed by an infantry fighting vehicle, then a tank again. Before reaching about 50 meters, he stops and aims a gun at us. I think: "That's it! The spirits have not crashed - they will finish theirs out of fear!" We jump up, wave our hands - they say, ours. The tank shook its barrel, turned around and as it dashed into the greenhouse 20 meters away from itself. With this "help" people jumped up - crawling on the grass, around them from automatic machines watered. We yell at them: "Guys, why are you crawling? There is no one here anymore." It turns out that it was the reconnaissance of the 324th regiment. I went up to the officers and said: "Why are you fighting here? You have to go to the head of the column!" And they told me: since you were here and even thinking, take ten people and move with them where you said yourself.
I walked around, found scouts, and we moved forward. I counted over forty burnt corpses. Judging by which cars remained intact, the spirits had clear information about what was where. For example, the medical MTLB generally remained intact, only the mechanics of small arms were filled up, and the Zushka behind it was literally turned into a sieve. Then we wondered why help came so late: if they had come an hour and a half earlier, then in the head of the column someone would have survived, and so there until the last one BRDM resisted, in which almost everyone was killed.
As the guys from the 324th regiment told later, when they reported that they were wetting our column in the gorge and it would be nice to rush to help, they were told not to twitch and stood where they were. Help came to us two and a half hours later, when it was all over.
For several days, the public wonders what happened to the Russian private military company Wagner, which is rumored to have suffered heavy losses in Syria.
Information about the massacre at the official level is extremely stingy and closed. Both the United States and Russia admit that a conflict situation has taken place. However, both sides are silent about the presence of Russians on the battlefield.
Nevertheless, scraps of information about the deaths of soldiers from the Russian Federation near the village of Khsham in Syria began to seep into those Russian media that are quite loyal to the Kremlin.
The only question is in the number of those killed and in the very fact of the battle.
What kind of battle it was and how many Russians actually died in it.What fight are we talking about
On the night of February 8, a battle took place near the village of Khsham in the Syrian province of Deir Ez Zor. The settlement is located on the border between the US-backed Kurds and the forces of the Assad government.The parties are divided by the Euphrates River - the Syrians are entrenched on the west bank, on the east - the Kurds, who make up the backbone of the opposition to Damascus "Syrian Free Army", which is supported by the Americans.
According to the version of Russia, the detachments of the "Islamic State" are based in the same region.
The parties blame each other for the conflict. In the US, they say that Assad's forces launched an attack on the Kurdish headquarters, where American advisers were stationed. They asked for contacts with the Russian military, who said that "they are not there" and that they are not conducting any operations in the area.
Then the American aviation was called, which defeated the advancing forces "in an open field." It is reported that the US military notified the Russian side in advance of plans to strike. This has not been denied in Russia.
In the American media, the most complete reconstruction of events was made by The Washington Post.
From the commentary of the Kurdish general Hassan, it follows that on the night of February 7-8, a pro-Assad convoy with tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and trucks advanced in the direction of the Conoco oil and gas field. At about 22.00 the enemy opened fire from tanks and artillery pieces. The shells exploded "about 450 meters from the positions occupied by the DSS (Syrian Democratic Forces - Ed.) And American soldiers."
According to Hasan, the US Air Force attack planes, fighters and drones were forced to attack the attackers. The fight ended at approximately 5.30 am.
The attack from the coalition involved an AC-130 attack aircraft and an Ah-64 Apache helicopter, F-15 fighters and drones, as well as artillery batteries.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the picture is completely different. The Americans made an avinalet on a detachment of Syrian militias who were conducting an operation against the ISIS "sleeping cell" in the area of the former Al-Isba oil refinery.
At the same time, the department stressed that the militias, who were hit by the coalition, did not coordinate their operation with the command of the Russian task force. No complaints were made against the United States.
So were the Russians or not?
As the Kremlin later said, the Russian military personnel did not participate in the operation.“As you know, in this case, we operate with the data that relate to the military personnel of the armed forces of the Russian Federation who take part in the operation of the armed forces, the Russian Aerospace Forces in support of the Syrian army. We do not have data on other Russians who may be in Syria. ", - said the speaker of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov.
Even the United States is not sure at the official level that it was the Russians who were bombed.
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis said that he did not have accurate information that the Russian PMC employees were eliminated during the air strike on Assad's forces.
"We even coordinate ground operations on each side," Mattis said. According to him, the Russian military was not among the Syrian forces that came under fire from the coalition near Hisham.
"The Russians told us at that time that their forces were not there," the head of the Pentagon said.
"The fact is that someone decided to attack us, and the Russians said that it was not about them. (...) You cannot ask Russia to prevent a conflict in the event that it does not control something, it could not be fulfilled, "said Mattis.
Pentagon statement on airstrike. Not a word about Russians
He also added that the Euphrates River has long been used as a line of demarcation between US and opposition forces, as well as the troops of Russia and the Syrian government. "The Russians have always responded to our signals, we have always responded. This line has never been broken," added Mattis.
He also suggested that Khsham did not have contractors or employees of Russian private military companies. “I think the Russians would have told us,” said Mattis. However, he warned that he did not have completely accurate information on this matter.
Nevertheless, reports of the deaths of soldiers from the Russian PMC "Wagner" continue to arrive. The participation in this battle of these particular fighters was first reported on the Conflict Intelligence Team's telegram channel and on the VK page of Igor Girkin (Strelkov), who commanded the "DPR army" for some time.
Nobody has officially denied this information yet. In the meantime, the first names of the deceased "private traders" have appeared.
What they say about losses
At the moment, five names of the soldiers who served with "Wagner" and who were allegedly killed in the battle near Khsham have already been sounded.
Alexey Ladygin from Ryazan
Vladimir Loginov from Kaliningrad
Stanislav Matveev from Asbestos of the Sverdlovsk Region
Igor Kosoturov, Asbestos
Kirill Ananiev from the Other Russia party
A number of local Russian media wrote about their deaths, acquaintances and relatives of the victims, as well as public organizations (for example, Cossack organizations), reported on social networks.
These names are also quoted by the Russian "Komsomolskaya Pravda", which has added another victim - a Ukrainian. According to the publication, a native of Slavyansk has already been buried in Rostov, who since 2014 took part in the battles in the Donbass on the part of the separatists. And in 2016, he signed a contract with a PMC.
RBC took several interviews with the relatives of the victims.
If we talk about cumulative losses, then here the data is based solely on rumors and varies depending on the source of information.
The first to report the losses of the Russians was the American television channel CNBC, which referred to a source in the Pentagon and announced the deaths of several hundred attackers, including mercenaries from the Russian Federation.
Bloomberg claims the deaths of 200 Russians - and also citing sources. True, then he cites the data of an official from the Pentagon, who says about a hundred dead in general (including the Syrians) and about 200 wounded.
This version is also correlated with the statement of the Kurdish general Hassan in an interview with WP. He claims that about a hundred of the attackers were eliminated. And among them "several Russians, probably from among the mercenaries, fighting along with the forces supporting the Syrian regime."
Battle of the oil refinery
One of the main unofficial reasons for the failed military operation is the attempt to control the oil refinery and the Conoco field. This is already recognized by the Russian press.According to Komsomolskaya Pravda, “considering that the Kurdish formations had occupied a large oil plant on the left bank of the Euphrates without serious reason, the pro-Assad forces decided to try to recapture it. retreat. "
According to Kommersant, the "blitzkrieg" did not work: "The calculation was that after the shelling ours would quickly take this plant by storm, the Kurds would drop their weapons. only half of the detachment managed to deploy in battle formation, "one of the Wagner soldiers told the publication.
“They just rolled us around,” a source of Komsomolskaya Pravda in the PMC said about the consequences of this hitch. “First, artillery, then helicopters ... 100 dead Syrians and Russians - ed.).
Surely they saw that we were preparing for an assault on our bridgehead on the left bank. It is no accident that a few days ago the crossing of the Euphrates was flooded through the drainage in the locks. Help would not have come to us, even hypothetically. As a result, the 5th assault detachment was killed almost completely, burned along with the equipment. "
Social networks believe that the "private traders" went into battle without proper air cover. And they explain this by the fact that the attack was really not coordinated with the official military command of the Russian Federation - otherwise there would be two or three fighters nearby.
According to a Russian military source Kommersant, the incident in the northern province of Deir ez-Zor was caused by an attempt by local "big businessmen who currently support Bashar al-Assad" to seize oil and gas fields controlled by Kurdish allies of the United States.
"To this end, pro-government tribal formations went on the offensive, and the so-called ISIS Hunters, reinforced by Wagner PMC fighters, went in the second echelon. Both of them were hit by the American Air Force and shelling," the newspaper writes. ...
The interlocutor of Kommersant claims that the Russian command in Syria did not authorize an offensive operation on the oil fields, which was perceived as a "dangerous amateur activity."
Why Trump called Putin
The situation around the unsuccessful attack by the Syrians with the Russians on the positions of the pro-American forces has brought considerable tension to relations between Washington and Moscow.Usually, unfriendly actions in Syria quickly enough (by military standards) cause a response from the "offended" side.
Interestingly, it was the Americans who immediately tried to relieve this tension. First, the tone of the Pentagon and Mattis was conciliatory and non-conflicting. The United States has stated several times that it consulted with the Russians before striking.
Secondly, the seriousness of the situation is indicated by Donald Trump's call to Vladimir Putin on February 12. Formally, Trump decided to express condolences over the An-148 disaster. The talks on the Syrian topic were not officially announced, however, the very fact of the call coincided with the growing excitement around the massacre near Deir Ez Zor.
It is not excluded that the plane crash was only a pretext for a personal connection between the presidents, without which this call could have been misinterpreted by the lobbyists of the "Kremlingate" in the United States.
What is known about PMC "Wagner"
Officially, this unit does not exist in nature, but the media write about this "private army" as a fait accompli.The PMC is associated with the "Slavic Brigade", which fought in Syria back in 2013. In 2014-2015, the PMC operated on the territory of the "LDNR". And then she reappeared in Syria.
The PMC commander is called a professional soldier, reserve lieutenant colonel Dmitry Utkin, who had a combat call sign "Wagner". By the way - Utkin is a native of the Kirovograd region. And, as it turned out, in the summer of 2016 he came to his relatives in Ukraine quite legally.
