Article

2018-02-15 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Mercs Hurt in U.S. Syria Strikes Are Treated at Russian Defense Hospitals (video)

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Besoeker 2018-02-15 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 Nov 2nd 2017 | MOSCOW

“I AM Roman Sergeyevich Zabolotny, born in 1979, and I have been taken prisoner,” says a Russian-speaking man in a video released last month by the jihadists of Islamic State (IS). A second soldier, his right eye swollen shut, sits silently in grey robes. Both were reportedly captured during a battle near Deir ez-Zor, a city in Syria’s east and the site of a recent offensive by Russian and Syrian government forces. Yet the Russian defence ministry denied that any of its soldiers had gone missing. Friends and relatives told Russian media that the men had gone to Syria not with the Russian army, but as part of a shadowy mercenary force known as “Wagner”.

The group has come to play a key role in Russian operations in Syria. Though Russian law officially bans private military companies (PMCs), a St Petersburg-based independent news site, Fontanka.ru, reported in late 2015 that ex-soldiers were being recruited to serve in Wagner by a former special-forces officer, Dmitry Utkin. Numbering as many as 2,500 men, the group is believed to have figured heavily in operations around Palmyra in 2016, serving as “shock troops” alongside the Syrian army, says Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russian security at the Institute of International Relations in Prague. Though the Russian army has not acknowledged Wagner’s existence, Mr Utkin was photographed late last year alongside President Vladimir Putin at a Kremlin reception for military officers in honour of Day of Heroes of the Fatherland. This summer America added him to its list of officials sanctioned for involvement in the Ukraine conflict of 2014, where the group is said to have got its start.

...

For now, the Wagnerians still operate in a grey zone. Fontanka.ru recently reported that their role has expanded to include seizing oil wells held by IS for a newly-formed Russian company, Evro Polis. As for the two captives, their fates are probably sealed, says an MP from the home region of one of them. “There’s a 99% chance that Roman and the second prisoner are no longer among the living.”

Link

Posted by Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 2018-02-15 00:18|| 2018-02-15 00:18|| Front Page Top

#2 "Man's gotta make a living"
"Dying ain't much of a living"

Posted by Frank G 2018-02-15 08:50|| 2018-02-15 08:50|| Front Page Top

#3 "Not getting killed, that really is the key to the benefit programme."

Posted by Besoeker 2018-02-15 08:51|| 2018-02-15 08:51|| Front Page Top

23:47 Injun Bucket8891
23:45 JohnQC
22:15 newc
21:06 SteveS
20:48 Betty Hatfield5124
20:02 Frank G
19:14 Skidmark
19:11 Skidmark
19:00 newc
18:40 newc
18:38 Alaska Paul
18:28 Alaska Paul
18:16 Omeger Gray6606
18:04 B. White5295
18:00 B. White5295
17:41 Procopius2k
17:36 Procopius2k
17:32 Procopius2k
17:10 rjschwarz
16:56 B. White5295
15:41 Iblis
15:19 B. Bluetooth7028
15:04 Frank G
14:56 Sock Puppet of Doom