The death of a lieutenant general in Syria. Why did a Russian general die in Syria? Only officially confirmed losses
As a result of a point hit by a mine launched by militants banned in Russia defending in Syrian Deir ez-Zor, a senior military adviser to the Russian Defense Ministry in Syria was killed. According to the RIA Novosti agency, citing a representative of the Ministry of Defense, the lieutenant general will be posthumously presented with a high state award.
“The senior group of Russian military advisers, Lieutenant General V. Asapov, was at the command post of the Syrian troops, assisting the Syrian commanders in managing the operation to liberate the city of Deir ez-Zor. As a result of a sudden mortar attack by ISIS militants, Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov was mortally wounded by a mine explosion, ”the military department told the agencies.
She reported death. Her source said that the general and two colonels were the victims of mortar fire on the command post on accurate guidance. Another interlocutor of the radio station at the headquarters of the 5th Army added that Lieutenant General Asapov has not been in touch since 16:00 on Saturday. According to him, under the mortar fire of the militants, not only the general, but also two colonels were killed. The fire was conducted on the exact tip. Mina landed straight into the command post.
A Gazeta.Ru source familiar with the situation confirmed the information about the death of the general.
Valery Asapov commanded the parachute regiment of the Russian peacekeeping forces in Abkhazia in 2001, was also the commander of the 37th separate guards motorized rifle brigade of the 36th combined arms army, and finally led the 5th combined arms army of the Eastern Military District with the rank of lieutenant general . In 2013 he became a Commander of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree.
Militants of the terrorist group "Islamic State" banned on the territory of Russia daily fire at the quarters of Deir ez-Zor, which is now being liberated by the Syrian army with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
Earlier on Sunday, September 24, a quarter of the city of Bhelie was fired upon by militants from mortars. reported that their correspondent had been hit. As a result of a mine explosion, glass was broken and the body of the car was damaged. The correspondent at the time of the shelling was next to the car, along with officers of the Syrian army.
The shelling took place a couple of kilometers from the southern entrance to the city. Terrorists covered with fire the place where two grocery stores are located. There are no military or civilian casualties as a result of this shelling.
On Thursday, September 21, ISIS mortar shelling killed four people and hospitalized more than ten civilians with shrapnel wounds in different parts tel.
In early September, two soldiers from Russia were killed in Syria when IS militants fired on a motorcade of the Russian Center for Reconciliation in the province.
“While following in the province of Deir ez-Zor, a car convoy was subjected to mortar fire by ISIS terrorists. As a result of the shelling, one Russian serviceman was killed, another was seriously injured, ”the Ministry of Defense reported.
The Russian Defense Ministry published on Friday, September 22, data on the effectiveness of the participation of the Russian military in the operation in Syria. According to this statistic
since 2015, with the support of Russia, almost 87.4% of the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic has been liberated.
2235 joined the ceasefire settlements, Russian aviation made 30,650 sorties, inflicted 92,006 air strikes, hit 96,828 objects of the Islamic State terrorist organization.
At the moment, the main fighting is taking place in the area of the city of Deir ez-Zor - the last "bastion" of ISIS terrorists. The capture of Deir ez-Zor will mean the end of the organized resistance of the Islamic State militants. The fighting in Deir ez-Zor is being carried out by government forces with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry officially confirmed the death of the first high-ranking military man in Syria. According to the military department, on September 23, after a mortar attack in Deir ez-Zor, Lieutenant General Valery Asapov died. According to Kommersant, he served in Syria for less than a year. He became the 38th Russian serviceman to die since the beginning of the operation. The Ministry of Defense noted that the general was posthumously nominated for a high state award.
As it became known to Kommersant, the first Russian officer, Lieutenant General Valery Asapov, was killed in Syria during a mortar attack on Deir ez-Zor. According to a Kommersant source close to the Russian Defense Ministry, this happened on September 23: “The general was literally torn to pieces, nothing was left of the man, since he was at the forefront.” The radio station “Moscow Speaks” was the first to report the death of the Russian general. As the radio station at the headquarters of the 5th Army was told, General Asapov had not been in contact since 16:00 on Saturday. The interlocutor of “Moscow speaking” noted that the shell hit the command post and two colonels were killed along with the general.
As RIA Novosti reported with reference to the Russian Defense Ministry, the senior group of Russian military advisers, Lieutenant General Asapov, was at the command post of the Syrian troops, assisting Syrian commanders in managing the operation to liberate the city of Deir ez-Zor. Recall that on September 5, the Syrian government army, with the support of Russian aviation, managed to deblock the city of Deir ez-Zor, which was surrounded by Islamic State militants for 28 months.
Assault detachments broke through the Islamist encirclement and began to clean up city blocks.
Having liberated the city, Bashar al-Assad's troops will be able to advance along the Euphrates River valley and reach the border with Iraq. But the Islamic State militants continue to offer active resistance and shell the neighborhoods of Deir ez-Zor daily. The victim of another shelling and became Russian general.
The Ministry of Defense reported that Valery Asapov was posthumously nominated for a high state award, but did not specify what award he was talking about.
General Asapov was the deputy commander of the 5th Red Banner Army of the Eastern Military District. He was previously awarded many military awards, including the Order of Courage, the Order of Military Merit, the Order of the Veteran's Cross II degree and the Medal of Military Merit. In January 1995, he was sent to Chechnya as the chief of staff of the battalion and the rank of major, and in Grozny received a severe gunshot wound in the leg. After graduating from the Frunze Military Academy, Colonel Asapov was appointed to the post of deputy commander of a separate airborne regiment as part of the peacekeeping forces in Abkhazia. After graduating from the Military Academy of the General Staff, he was appointed commander of the 37th separate guards motorized rifle brigade of the 36th Army of the Eastern Military District, which during the year took part in three international exercises at once together with the armies of Mongolia and India, for which in 2013 President Vladimir Putin presented Valery Asapov with the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 4th class.
The name of the deceased general has repeatedly appeared in the media in connection with military operations in the Donbass. In March 2016, the main intelligence department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine stated that the career officer of the Russian army, Major General Valery Asapov, "participates in a military conflict in the south-east of Ukraine."
On September 20, it became known that another soldier from Russia had died in Syria. Vladimir Tarasyuk was a participant in military operations in Chechnya, he had awards for military merit. According to his younger sister Olga, who spoke on the air of the Bratsk Television Studio, on September 16, at about 10:30 am local time, he returned to the base “with a colonel and a general,” but in the end they were ambushed by militants. “He still lived 40 minutes. He received a shrapnel wound in the head on the left and simply bled out,” Olga said. “The militants did not allow the helicopter to land to pick up their own, and, unfortunately, this happened.”
Alexandra Djordjevic
In Syria, Lieutenant General Valery Asapov, who served as commander of the 5th combined arms army of the Russian Armed Forces, whose headquarters is located in Ussuriysk, died. The information that the general, seconded to the Middle East as a senior group of Russian military advisers in the government Syrian Arab army, was at the command post of the Syrian troops and was fatally wounded when he came under mortar fire, appeared on Sunday evening, September 24. RIA Novosti, for example, at 9:42 p.m. posted a message citing the Russian Ministry of Defense that Asapov "assisted the government armed forces in managing the operation to liberate Deir ez-Zor."
On Sunday, but nine hours earlier, at 12.13 on his American Facebook page The Russian Ministry of Defense posted aerial photographs“ISIS deployment areas north of Deir ez-Zor”, taken from September 8 to 12. Specialists of the Russian military department recorded on aerial photographs "a large number of American Hammer-type armored vehicles in service with US special forces" and “clearly saw” that in the strongholds equipped by militants of the ISIS terrorist organization banned in Russia, there are “units special purpose USA".
Official Facebook page of the Ministry of Defense of Russia
“However, there are no signs of an assault, clashes with ISIS terrorists or craters from international coalition air strikes around these objects,” Russian Defense Ministry specialists emphasized. - Despite the fact that the strongholds of the US Armed Forces are located in the areas of the current deployment of ISIS detachments, they do not even have signs of the organization of combat guards. This can only mean that all US military personnel stationed there feel completely safe in areas held by terrorists.
Of course, drawing conclusions based on photographs of Hammer cars that there are also American special forces in areas controlled by terrorists is the same as suspecting gunsmiths from Izhevsk of supplying weapons to Somali pirates because they are armed with Kalashnikovs. And not only because the US special forces no longer use the Hummers, having moved more than a year ago to the Oshkosh L-ATV armored vehicles. The fact is that back in 2014, ISIS, having entered Iraqi Mosul, captured more than two thousand Hummer cars as trophies.
But these obvious inconsistencies did not prevent the Russian Defense Ministry on September 21 from spreading an official message signed by the official representative of the military department, Major General Igor Konashenkov, about the recorded transfer of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militants from the province of Raqqa to the northern regions of the province of Deir ez-Zor .
The key point in this message was that “SDF fighters are freely pouring into the battle formations of ISIS terrorists. During the week, Russian unmanned vehicles and intelligence did not record a single clash between ISIS and the "third force" - the SDF.
In a message dated September 21, Konashenkov also mentioned mortar shelling: “... from the areas on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, in which SDF fighters are stationed together with special forces of the US Armed Forces, massive mortar and rocket artillery fire was opened on Syrian troops twice.”
The aerial photographs released on September 24 and the Defense Ministry's official announcement on September 21 were the key elements of a massive information campaign on social networks that unfolded on the night of Sunday to Monday, which "proved" the involvement of US intelligence agencies in the death of Russian Lieutenant General Valery Asapov.
And the next morning after the appearance of information about the death of the Russian general, the Telegram channel "Herald of Damascus", referring to its sources, reported that the mortar shelling began immediately after one of the Syrian volunteer detachments left the positions around the command post, which was entrusted with protection of the Russian military adviser. In social networks, a heated discussion of the version of betrayal immediately began.
The military specialists interviewed by Novaya Gazeta, who participated in command and staff positions in combat operations back in Afghanistan and served in points local conflicts, including in Syria, do not rule out any of these versions. But the main reason for the death of Valery Asapov is considered "dashing or bungling."
“There is a pocket war going on in Syria. Command posts (CP) are not stationary there. CPs are constantly moving in the course of the operational situation. But in any case, a checkpoint is a small, but a cluster of cars, armored vehicles, and serious means of communication. All this is necessary to coordinate the actions of the Syrian units with groups of the Special Operations Forces of the Russian Defense Ministry and Wagner PMC detachments, which are also involved in the liberation of Deir ez-Zor, says one of our interlocutors. - And it is the military adviser who directs the coordination of artillery fire, requests air support from the Khmeimim air base in excess of the order and plan ...
- Yes, the command post is always equipped in a place convenient for review and control of the situation, but not so close to the enemy. Because the accumulation of equipment is the surest intelligence sign, my interlocutor concludes. What is a mortar attack? This means that the enemy was at a distance of a maximum of two to three kilometers. The Russian lieutenant general, senior military adviser was actually at the forefront ...
More importantly, a military specialist with experience of serving in Syria claims that at least four officers from the Syrian military intelligence Mukhabarat are attached to advisers of this rank. Where were these officers at the time of the mortar attack?
- And I also wonder where during the mortar shelling was the Syrian general, to whom the adviser Asapov was "attached"? my interlocutor says. “Because the task of a military adviser is not to do everything himself, not to command, but to teach, to suggest to the commander of the Syrian army, to whom he is assigned, how to do everything right. An adviser of Asapov's level should have been next to almost the commander-in-chief of the Syrian army.
The fact is that after the transfer of Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft to Syria, with the start of air strikes on terrorist positions (recall: the first combat sortie of Russian aircraft in Syria took place on September 30, 2015), the apparatus of Russian military advisers in the Syrian government army also became stronger. They appeared in almost all corps and brigades. And a lieutenant general, a military leader who commanded one of the largest army formations in Russia, unequivocally led all Russian military advisers in Syria.
- What did General Asapov do on the front line? Who sent him there? Who gave the order to be at this command post? my interlocutor asks questions. — Bashar al-Assad? He could not give such an order. Commander of the Group of Forces of the Russian Armed Forces in Syria? He could. But for what?
It is possible that the answers to these questions can be found in the analysis of the events that preceded the death of Lieutenant General Valery Asapov.
On August 13, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, on the air of the Rossiya 24 TV channel, said that the liberation of Deir ez-Zor from terrorists would be a key event in the fight against ISIS:
- This is such a main point on the Euphrates, after the capture of which it will be possible to talk about the end of the fight against ISIS ...
On August 25, the commander of the Grouping of Russian Armed Forces in Syria, Colonel-General Sergei Surovikin from the Khmeimim airbase made a report on the situation in Syria via a teleconference. The general reported that "the total losses of the enemy in the three months from May to August 2017" amounted to more than 8 thousand militants, 1.5 thousand pieces of weapons, military and other equipment, and this number is increasing every day. Surovikin said that after the de-blockade of Deir ez-Zor, "the defeat of the main forces of ISIS terrorists and the elimination of their last stronghold on Syrian soil will be completed."
It is possible that, inspired by the report of the commander of the Russian group in Syria, on September 12, the Minister of Defense flew to Damascus and met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The conversation went "in the context of the successful actions of the Syrian government troops with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces to complete the destruction of the ISIS terrorist group in Syria" ( quote from the official press release of the MoD. — THEM.).
But then something went wrong. The terrorist international went on the offensive near the city of Hama in the Idlib de-escalation zone. Tanks and combat vehicles were thrown into the battle, the offensive was preceded by powerful fire training. In just one day, “the militants managed to penetrate into the defense of government troops to a depth of 12 kilometers, at the front up to 20 kilometers” ( quote from the official press release of the Russian Ministry of Defense. — THEM.). The militants surrounded the military police platoon. To save 29 Russians, almost the entire aircraft had to be lifted into the air from the Khmeimim air base and mobile groups of the Special Operations Forces were urgently transferred to Idlib ...
View of the Jafra district in Deir ez-Zor, where fighting continues between the Syrian army and militants of the ISIS organization banned in Russia. Photo: RIA Novosti After the optimistic forecasts of the Minister of Defense and the commander of the Russian group in Syria, the militant counteroffensive in Idlib looked like an outright mockery. It is possible that someone either in Moscow or at the Khmeimim airbase needed an urgent victory that could outshine the Idlib slap in the face. So they transferred to Deir ez-Zor everyone they could, including the senior military adviser, Lieutenant General Valery Asapov, who, due to his rank and official duties, could not have been at the front line command post.
September 24, 2017 in Syria during the battle for Deir ez-Zour, Lieutenant General Valery Asapov was killed. According to the Ministry of Defense, the general was right on the front line when the mine hit the command post.
Valery Asapov is from the Kirov region. He was born in 1966 in the village of Kalinino, Malmyzhsky district. Here he spent his childhood, here he went to school. In it, at the lessons of the NVP, as a schoolboy, he promised that he would become a general. His brothers live here, his mother is buried.
The last time Valery Grigoryevich came to Malmyzh this summer. He came to the summer camp to schoolchildren and talked about his service. In the school of the native village of Kalinino there is a stand that tells about "Uncle Valera" - this is how the guys here affectionately call the general.
In Malmyzh, and in the entire Malmyzh region, everyone knows Valery Asapov. For hundreds of children, he is an example of courage and heroism. Almost every kid dreams of being like Asapov. Now the district is actively discussing his death, everyone is worried, they sympathize with his relatives. The brothers of Valery Grigoryevich - Sergey and Vyacheslav - have now left for Moscow to say goodbye, - says a friend of the family Aliya Galimzyanova.
In general, Valery Asapov was the eldest child in the family. There were four boys in all. From childhood, he used to help his mother with the housework, stood up for his brothers. Friends recall that he was very purposeful.
If he decides something, he will definitely do it. For example, at the lesson of basic military training, he always very diligently completed all the tasks. He said that he would grow up and be sure to become a general. Indeed, he graduated from high school with an honors student. Could do anywhere. But he went to the Ryazan Airborne School, where there was a huge competition. In addition to exams, there were also field tests - when applicants showed themselves in real field conditions. So during the fields there were such serious tests that many guys dropped out. And Valery Asapov did, - says Aliya. - And with all this, he was a very cheerful person, cheerful, easy to communicate with.
Asapov's brothers also chose courageous specialties: Sergey and Vadim went to the police. Vadim is dead. Sergey still works at the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Kirov region. And Vyacheslav works as a collector. And the general's nephew also decided to follow in the footsteps of his uncle-hero and is now studying to become a military man.
I sincerely feel sorry for the relatives of Valery Grigorievich. This is a very big loss. Gone good man, still so young - only 51 years old ... - our interlocutor admits.
Posthumously Lieutenant General Asapov was awarded the Order Courage.
HELP "KP"
Asapov participated in operations on the territory of Chechnya, Abkhazia, South Ossetia. During the battles for Grozny, he received a severe gunshot wound. During the year he underwent four operations in hospitals. After treatment, he returned to duty, but remained lame.
During the years of service he commanded a platoon, company, battalion, regiment, division, brigade, corps, army.
Among his awards are the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" IV degree, the Order of Courage, the Order "For Military Merit", the medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" II degree with swords, the medal "For Military Merit", the medal "For Distinction in military service» Grade I...
The Lieutenant General is survived by his wife and two children.
Asapov was reportedly killed during a mortar attack on Deir ez-Zor. At the same time, the source of the publication assures that the general was literally torn apart: "There is nothing left of the man, since he was at the forefront," Newsru.com quotes him as saying.
According to the radio station "Moscow speaking", two colonels died together with Asapov. Meanwhile, on the Facebook page of the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), a group of independent investigators of military conflicts, it is noted that some details in the messages of different sources who told about the incident differ.
So, the unofficial account of the Moscow traffic police department on Instagram claimed that only the translator died along with the general, and the Russian Ministry of Defense did not disclose the date of death and did not mention any more victims.
At the same time, the sister of another Russian serviceman who died in Syria, Sergeant Vladimir Tarasyuk, according to CIT, said that a general and a colonel were killed along with him, and this happened on September 16.
The death of General Valery Asapov became known on September 24. As CIT notes, in the morning, messages about this appeared on the social network VKontankte, a few hours later the information was disseminated by an unofficial account of the Moscow traffic police department on Instagram, then by the radio station Moskva Speaks, after which the information was officially confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
According to Kommersant, Asapov served in Syria for less than a year. He was at the command post of the Syrian troops - he helped the Syrian commanders in managing the operation to liberate Deir ez-Zor, the military reported. In early September, the city was recaptured from the militants of the Islamic State group, but they continued to shell it. A Russian general became a victim of one of these attacks.
According to Kommersant's estimates, Asapov became the 38th Russian serviceman to die in Syria since the beginning of the operation of the Russian Aerospace Forces in this country. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, in 2017 the death toll was 10 people. The department noted that the general was posthumously nominated for a high state award, without specifying which one. Previously, participants in the operation in the SAR were awarded the title of Hero of Russia and the Order of Courage.
Kommersant writes that Asapov already has the Order of Courage. He was also awarded the Order "For Military Merit", the Order "Veteran Cross" II degree and the medal "For Military Merit". In 2013, President Vladimir Putin presented Valery Asapov with the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 4th Class, for participating in international exercises as commander of the 37th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 36th Army of the Eastern Military District.
