In the compartment of the branded “Quiet Don” train, which departed from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow in early November 2017, a strange-looking medal was washed. In this award, the symbols of mutually hostile eras were clearly visible - the Prussian Iron Cross, the Soviet five-pointed star and the White Guard Order of the Ice March. Three men of different ages, approximately 20, 35 and 45 years old, then did not fall into drunken courage; the awards quietly disappeared somewhere so quickly that I did not have time to ask about the origin of the strange medal. However, the path was not short, and little by little, first from scraps of phrases, then, when common tastes and memories were found, a whole picture began to emerge from frank conversations.

The three men were returning from a six-month deployment to Syria. We traveled under a contract concluded with the well-known private military company (PMC) Wagner, although the document, of course, does not contain either this pseudonym call sign or the surname of its owner - Dmitry Utkin, who, by the way, headed Evgeniy’s restaurant holding in the same November Prigozhin, also known as the “chief cook of the Kremlin.” They flatly refused to disclose the official name of the organization that hired them, saying only that this name is constantly changing. The legal address is located in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, on Ilinskoye Highway, in the area of ​​the military town of Pavshino. The contract period is from three to six months. The contract is signed at the PMC base in Molkino. The future fighter reads the multi-page document, signs it, and it remains in the company office. It is strictly forbidden to communicate with representatives of the media, so in this collective interview they appear as Sergei Ts., Gennady F. and Stepan M. These men were among those who put an end to the long war in the ancient lands of Syria.

December 6, 2017 information Agency Interfax will officially report, with reference to the Russian Ministry of Defense, that “Syria has been completely liberated from terrorists, all ISIS gangs have been destroyed, more than a thousand settlements have been liberated, and main communications have been unblocked.” But in these victorious reports not a word is said about the contribution that ordinary soldiers of private military companies made to the victory.

COLLECTION PLACE: MOLKINO BASE

In the area of ​​the Molkino village, Krasnodar Territory, the 10th separate special forces brigade of the GRU (military unit 51532) is located. The Wagner PMC base is adjacent to it. Soldiers came here from all over the country. First, they had to pass a medical commission and various admissions tests.

“There was a medical examination, but the selection was more visual: arms and legs in place - and forward,” says Sergei. – They took everyone, because the PMC suffered heavy losses in Syria. They also had to run 3 km and do 40–50 push-ups (this was rated as “good” and “excellent”). Many did not pass these standards, but were enrolled.

A lie detector was considered a much more serious test. Every candidate takes a polygraph. For example, out of eight people in the group in which Gennady was, only two successfully passed the lie detector, including himself. Gennady still has no idea what the others were using, what kind of lies the PMC psychologists were looking for. But, in his opinion, this selection certainly did not concern the criminal background of the candidates.

Personnel accepted under the contract were distributed among “brigades.” These were not army brigades in their traditional form; the PMC brigades consisted of only 300 to 400 people, depending on the tasks assigned to them.

FLIGHT ROSTOV-ON-DON – DAMASCUS

From international airport We flew to Rostov-on-Don on April 25, 2017, on a regular charter flight. They did not put a visa in the passport; the border guards only stamped the departure note (and upon return, another arrival note). The Syrian Border Service does not appear in the documents at all. In total, one and a half hundred PMC fighters flew in the Boeing; a day or two later, the second half of the “brigade” arrived in the same way. We flew to Damascus in civilian clothes and changed clothes at the Syrian base, that is, in the middle of the desert. Military uniform they took with them, each dressed to their own taste. The desert uniform of the British SAS special forces is considered the most comfortable, the best in strength and color, followed by the uniform of the American special forces. So, in appearance, the Russian fighters were no different from a detachment of Anglo-Saxon special forces. The Syrian uniform, according to the unanimous opinion of the interlocutors, is of very poor quality.

OIL FIELDS AL-SHAIR

The PMC fighters did not go through security control at Damascus airport; they immediately boarded buses and off they went. Where?

“The rank and file are never told where, how long to go and what they will do,” says Stepan. “We were brought to the area of ​​the oil fields of Ash-Shair, where we stayed for three months and only after three months did we find out what this place was called. 40 kilometers northwest of Palmyra.

They dropped us off right in the mountain desert. Some did not have tents, in particular Sergei, and for the first month and a half he lived “in the fresh air,” although it was raining and cold in the mountainous areas at that time. Only later were government-issued tents issued. In total, three PMC brigades were gathered in that place, that is, about a thousand people. What did you do?

“The mountains were on guard,” says Gennady. “ISIS spirits were sitting on the opposite mountain range. They were bombarded by aircraft all the time. Armored vehicles were transported past us every day - tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, about 60 units in total. Apparently, preparations were underway for an offensive.

At the end of August, the offensive began, and the fighters went through the mountains to the city of Akerbat. We descended into the valley and took the adjacent villages one after another.

"STORMS" AND STORM OF AKERBAT

The striking force of a PMC brigade in Syria is usually called “assaults” (with emphasis on the last syllable). In addition to “assaults,” there is also a platoon of heavy weapons, at its disposal are mortars, ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles), heavy machine guns, and AGS (automatic grenade launchers). Fire support squad. An armored group with an indefinite amount of equipment - from one infantry fighting vehicle to several armored personnel carriers and tanks, depending on your luck. The brigade's combat strength is about 200 people, those who have at least some combat experience. The remaining 100–150 are the so-called staff guys, servants, and personal drivers of commanders. The brigades are commanded by retired special forces officers (not a single career officer); there are practically no army officers.

“For example, the Syrian commander turned to the commander of our brigade,” says Gennady, “and offered several tanks for free, since the Arabs did not have crews for them.

The first to attack are the “assaults”, followed by a platoon of heavy weapons - mortars, heavy machine guns, ATGMs, etc. The enemy set traps, allowed several suburban villages to be taken almost unhindered, and just before the city of Akerbat the brigade encountered an iron defense, where dozens were killed. There were specific battles here, for every house. They found documents of ISIS members (they were handed over to the PMC special officers), they came across notebooks with prayers in Russian, and there were many Uzbek names on the lists.

“Only Russian PMC brigades took Akerbat,” says Sergei, the other two nod their heads in agreement. – The Syrians came to the final stage to film for TV news. We even hid so as not to get into the frame when the Syrians posed with a heroic look.

OFFICIAL REPORT ON THE CAPTURE OF AKERBAT

So, the fighters of the Wagner PMC claim that they captured Akerbat on their own; Syrian government troops did not take part in the assault. Official version claims exactly the opposite, the role of PMCs is not mentioned in a word. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, “On September 2, 2017, units of the 4th tank division Syrian government troops, in cooperation with units of the 5th Volunteer Assault Corps and detachments of the military Mukhabarat, with the active support of the Russian Aerospace Forces, liberated the strategically important city of Akerbat, where the “last major center of resistance” of terrorists of the IS organization banned in Russia was located (“ Islamic State" - an international terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation).

Government " Russian newspaper"in those days, the commander of the Russian military group in Syria, Colonel-General Sergei Surovikin, conveyed a message, who, in particular, noted that “to support the offensive of the Syrian army in the Akerbat area, Russian aviation carried out 329 bomb and missile strikes, as a result of which 27 were destroyed units of militant armored vehicles, 48 ​​pickup trucks with mounted large-caliber weapons and more than 1,000 militants.” The general also said that ISIS in Akerbat used an unprecedented number of suicide bombers. According to him, “from 15 to 25 militants with suicide belts and four to five jihad mobiles were destroyed every day.” But the general kept silent about the fact that this destruction work was done by guys from the Wagner PMC.

PERFUME

“Almost all ISIS fighters wear a suicide belt,” says Stepan. - Such a beautiful thing, neat, light weight. A plastic package filled with a transparent gel containing many, many metal balls. Because of this, we did not take a single spirit prisoner. One night, ISIS soldiers foolishly entered our village. Most of them, of course, we immediately killed, and several we chased around the village for some time. One spirit, apparently seriously wounded, called for help for a long time, and then an explosion thundered. The explosion caused a nearby wall to collapse. It turns out that he was twenty meters from us. In the morning they carried out cleaning, pits and basements were thrown with grenades.

“The tactics of the spirits are simple: when there is a night firefight, two or three suicide bombers get close and explode,” added Gennady. “This happened once or twice a week: an ISIS fighter would approach the wall of our shelter and explode. Quite a few died from such night raids: eight in one battle, fifteen in another, ten in a third.

“All the local residents had left the village by that time. In general, we did not encounter civilians,” Sergei assured.

DEIR EZZOR: SYRIAN STALINGRAD

They took Akerbat and told the PMC fighters: it’s time to get ready to go home. We were already changing into civilian clothes, and suddenly an order: to the cars in full equipment. We drove through the desert for about seven hours, drove three hundred kilometers to the east and found ourselves not far from the city of Deir ez-Zor. There were two Russian PMC brigades that had already crossed the Euphrates on pontoons when the operation to unblock Deir ez-Zor was underway. We were given the task of liberating the adjacent island from ISIS. We carried out this task for about two months, the main losses were suffered in this place, mostly being blown up by mines.

RIA Novosti reports then said: “ Advance Detachments On September 5, the Syrian army broke through the three-year blockade of Deir ez-Zor and went on the offensive on the eastern outskirts of the city. Having broken through the encirclement of the Air Force base, and after knocking out terrorists from strategic heights in the southwest, government troops reached the western bank of the Euphrates River and crossed it, thereby displacing terrorist detachments in the direction of the Iraqi border and creating a ring around residential areas captured by the Islamic State terrorist group. neighborhoods of Deir ez-Zor."

Military expert Viktor Baranets commented on the lifting of the blockade from Deir ez-Zor: “The city of Deir ez-Zor is of strategic importance for the further actions of terrorists in Syria. If it is taken, it will be a strategic defeat for the militants, and it will be about the same for them as in 1945 for Hitler's Germany. Deir ez-Zor has the same significance for ISIS. Defeat in Deir ez-Zor will mean that terrorists will no longer offer active military resistance. This will be not only a military, but also a moral defeat for them, and in front of the whole world.”

“What the blockade of Deir ez-Zor is, again, it must be understood in an Eastern way,” said Sergei. “All those three years that the blockade lasted, cars with food and consumer goods passed through without hindrance. No one suffered from hunger. They even joked that the Syrians said: we fought here for three years, fought, the Russians came - and the war began.

“And chaos began,” Gennady laughed.

Meanwhile, according to Sergei, while the spirits held the line in Al-Shair, the Kurds sent here by the Americans captured the oil fields. At the end of September, the ISIS retreated along flank directions, and again Russian PMC brigades had to return to “squeeze out the oil fields.”

“Apparently, they agreed at the top, and the Kurds moved a little,” says Sergei. – Judging by the inscriptions on the oil rigs, some of them belonged to Europeans, some to Canadians. Canadians lost the most.

At the end of October, the mission of the Wagner PMC fighters was ending. In those days, ISIS cut one of the two main roads connecting the east and west of Syria. They took us along a longer route – about 800 kilometers. There were no incidents.

LOSSES

Over the six months of the mission, the casualties of one brigade amounted to about 40 dead (“two hundredths”) and about 100 wounded (“three hundredths”). The other brigade was more “lucky”: their losses amounted to about 20 killed and 70 wounded. And in the third brigade, in the first two weeks alone, they lost about 50 killed. Most died during the lifting of the blockade of Deir ez-Zor. Thus, a tenth of the personnel died, a fifth were wounded.

MILITARY EQUIPMENT

“The losses would have been much less,” says Sergei, “if the supply of the PMC group had not been so bad, simply bad.” Broken armored cars, five trucks lost in three days, there was nothing even to transport personnel. And the losses from this are high... and that’s it - they stopped! Collapse. No one is going anywhere, God forbid the wounded are taken out. And experience says that it is high time to transfer soldiers to armored vehicles designed for no more than 10 people. Although a year ago the equipment was decent - both weapons and equipment.

“This is just a beautiful television picture: tanks are moving across the desert in a row, followed by infantry fighting vehicles, and helicopters circling above them,” says Stepan. – In fact, there was very little equipment. Our “armada” moved partly on foot, and partly on KamAZ and Urals vehicles. If an ATGM hits a truck, then the losses are, of course, huge. And this saving of our military buns turned into huge losses. One of the leaders responsible for the military supply of the brigades apparently reported to the top how much had been saved. And for three brigades, that is, one and a half thousand people, they were issued only five night sights!

-What about the spirits? - says Stepan. “For example, there are usually 30–40 people in a position, so they are given two or three night sights. When the spirits go on a night attack, five “assaults” barely see them, the rest don’t see a damn thing. The father commanders say: shoot at the flashes. And to do this you need to stick your head out of the shelter. And if you get into the night sight of an ISIS soldier, who definitely won’t play the fool, he’ll shoot right away - and you won’t have time to notice the flash. So it turns out: the spirits see everything, but most of the “assaults” are blind. And therefore the losses are huge.

- So how should it be? – says Sergei. – Like in special forces: each soldier has a night sight and one of the three has a thermal imaging sight. And so - lead people to slaughter. But the management of the PMC may have a lot of money, but they are not going to buy new equipment. I saw with my own eyes a unit armed with three-line rifles, revolvers, Degtyarev machine guns, and even Maxim machine guns. And at first I had a three-ruler. Body armor from the time of the capture of Kabul. The tanks are all “prize”, that is, captured from the Arabs, some resemble a colander. When I was indignant in front of my superiors, I heard: “Darling, why are you in a fairy tale? What they gave you, fight with.”

MILITARY TRAINING

My interlocutors divided the forces that fought on Assad’s side into three categories based on their fighting qualities. The lowest place is occupied by the Syrians, the middle by the Fatimids (as the PMCs called militants from Afghanistan) and Palestinians, the top by the Russians.

“Once a Fatimid detachment captured a bridgehead, then redeployed, and government troops took their place and immediately raised their flag,” said Sergei. “And our experienced fighter, who visited Syria five times, predicted: if the Syrian flag appears over the positions in the evening, then in the morning the ISIS flag will be there. We took it as a joke. And in the morning we woke up from a frantic stomp: 300-400 Syrian soldiers were running shouting: “The ISIS tank has arrived!” And indeed: a black banner had already been raised over the positions of government troops.

“Russians are unsurpassed fighters, especially in defense,” says Stepan. “No one could withstand our attacks, no one.” For six months, not a single enemy withstood the attacks of the “assaults”. Neither in Akerbat, nor in the Deir ez-Zor area.

“And even the Fatimids are well equipped,” said Gennady. – I myself saw how they drove “jihadists” through the desert on their motorcycles (that’s what they call an ISIS pickup truck with weapons; it differs from a “suicide bomber” - the same car, but stuffed with explosives). They abandoned this “jihad” as if there was nothing to do. Is it really possible to fight like that with our equipment?! Our gunners walk on foot, together with the infantry, there are three of them: one carries the installation, two carry one rocket each (each of them weighs 25 kilograms). ISIS also has three pilots, but they are on two motorcycles. On one motorcycle there is an installation and two people, on the other there is a third with two missiles. They made a noise and disappeared a minute later.

“I personally saw how a Dukhovsky ATGM knocked out three vehicles - an armored personnel carrier and two trucks - within 10 minutes,” says Sergei.

“The level of training of the Syrian troops is not only zero, but, one might say, minus,” Gennady picked up. – For example, out of 60 units of armored vehicles brought, as already said, to the combat area, about 20 ended up in the hands of ISIS spirits who were in Akerbat. In general, tanks in Syria are a moving prize. There is even a joke on this topic: Russia supplies tanks to the Syrians, the Syrians give them to ISIS, the Russians come, take the tanks from the ISIS and receive a bonus for it. Again we hand it over to the Syrians - and everything starts all over again, the tank circulates throughout Syria until it is burned.

“Personally, I saw how Syrian special forces went on reconnaissance,” recalls Sergei. “We walked about seven kilometers and started yelling on the radio that they had run out of water, several people were hit (and these were indigenous residents of Syria). And they returned without completing the task. The Russians even had to endure sun-stricken Arabs on themselves. I agree with Gennady: zero level of training.

“All of Syria is approximately two Moscow regions, most of it is desert,” Stepan concludes. – It’s enough to liberate a few enclaves and a valley – and that’s it! And let the spirits ride like steppe hares through the desert as much as they want. The work is for a month or two, but no one needs it. Generals make money from the war, tanks and weapons are decommissioned, ISIS conducts trade with everyone almost officially.

PERSONNEL OF PMC "WAGNER"

“Despite the fact that many PMC soldiers served in the army and special forces, I will not be mistaken if I say that 90% do not understand where they are going,” says Sergei. – The desire to earn money completely blows your brain away. Therefore, having found themselves in a real mess, they declare that they came here not to die, but to earn money. These are called “five hundredths,” that is, deserters and refuseniks. They are immediately sent to rigging teams, that is, shell loaders, etc.

“And in life, those who came to Syria are mostly losers,” says Gennady. – As a rule, former cops, prisoners and military personnel. About 40% of the personnel served time for serious crimes - murders, robberies, etc. PMC fighters even greet each other like this: “Hello, losers!” It is noticeable that for many months before the business trip, and even years, they drank without drying out. In Syria it is forbidden to drink, their heads lighten up a little, and they make a vow to quit for the rest of their lives. They return to Russia with a million in their pockets and go into such a dive that a month later they crawl back to the base without pants.

EARNINGS OF A GENTLEMAN OF LUCK

A year or two ago, according to Sergei, fighters of the Wagner PMC earned 310-350 thousand rubles a month (240 thousand - salary plus 3 thousand per day - combat). In the spring of this year they had 300 thousand (with a salary of 220 thousand), and those who arrived in the fall earned an average of 200–210 thousand (the salary dropped to 150 thousand).

– What is the reason for the drop in earnings? – Stepan asked again. – I think with the fact that everyone steals, they steal everything. At some point, people lose their heads and start stealing without a twinge of conscience. We suspect that the top people still pay decently, but just below they come up with various restrictions that are associated with salaries. For example, there is a clause in the contract that states that a business trip starting from the fourth month is considered long-term and an additional thousand rubles are paid for each day. When someone reminded the boss about this point, he received the following answer in a very softened form: “Are you crazy? You already get a lot!”

- What about insurance? - I ask. – What amount is paid in case of death?

“You see,” says Sergei, “according to some rumors, three and a half million, according to others – five million.” Personally, I didn’t see anything about this in my contract. Although I could have looked at it: the contract is multi-page, and besides, the principle of time pressure comes into play. It says that you agree that you may not be taken out as a corpse. Also, according to rumors, they pay 50 thousand for a minor injury, and up to 300 thousand plus treatment for a more severe one. They say the treatment is good - in military hospitals in Rostov-on-Don, Kislovodsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow, etc. Good conditions, highly qualified doctors. But there is one principle: no disabilities.

“I have an ambivalent attitude towards these private military companies,” Stepan adds. – On the one hand, they deceive, and it’s insulting. On the other hand, if you look at the situation from the outside, PMCs are removing unnecessary elements from civilian life (this is literally what the fighter said about his comrades, and therefore about himself. - A.Ch.).

As it turned out later, Sergei brought one and a half million rubles from Syria. I paid off my debts, bought a night sight, binoculars, warm clothes, and other little equipment. There is only just enough money left to get from Moscow to Krasnodar.

– What work is left in Syria? Protect oil fields and factories. They will no longer throw attacks.

On February 7, in Syria, in the province of Deir ez-Zor, a battle took place, as a result of which fighters of the Russian “Private Military Company Wagner” were killed. We have collected the latest information about what happened.

The battle became known on Friday, February 9, when the American television channel CBS, citing sources in the Pentagon, reported that in Syria, Russian mercenaries who were trying to seize an oil field near the village of Hisham were hit by an airstrike by an international coalition under the command of the United States. On the same day about the heavy losses of Wagner PMC reported Igor Strelkov (Girkin), commander of pro-Russian separatists in Donbass in 2014. He did not provide any evidence or name sources. Audio recordings were distributed on social networks, which spoke of more than two hundred dead, but no confirmation of the authenticity of the recording or the authenticity of the information was provided.

Critics of reports mass death fighters of the Wagner PMC point to the appearance of fake videos of an alleged attack on the convoy and the fact that Igor Strelkov is critical of the participation of people who fought on the side of the pro-Russian separatists in the Syrian campaign.

Death toll

There is no official data on the losses of the Wagner PMC; all information is based either on reports from relatives and friends of the killed fighters, or on media information, which, as a rule, refers to unnamed sources.

On Monday, the names of the five victims became known:

Alexey Ladygin from Ryazan,

Vladimir Loginov from Kaliningrad,

Stanislav Matveev from the city of Asbest, Sverdlovsk region,

Igor Kosoturov, Asbestos,

Kirill Ananyev.

About the first four wrote investigative group Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT). The latter was called "Mediazona".

Alexey Shikhov from Nizhny Novgorod(previously participated in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine),

Vladimir, call sign "Apostle", member of the patriotic organization "Triune Rus'",

Ruslan Gavrilov, Kedrovoye village, Sverdlovsk region.

The Znak publication spoke with Matveev’s widow; according to her, the relatives received the news of the death of Kosoturov and Matveev on February 9 from people with whom they fought in the so-called “LPR” in 2015–2016. As the woman said, her husband and at least 9 other people from Asbest and the village of Kedrovoye left for Rostov[-on-Don] in September, where “trainings” took place until October, and from there they went to Syria. (In the area of ​​Rostov-on-Don there is a base where fighters of the Wagner PMC train.)

Co-chairman of the Other Russia party Alexander Averin reported to Mediazona about the death of Kirill Ananyev. Ananyev, a former National Bolshevik, also fought in eastern Ukraine on the side of pro-Russian separatists before Syria.

• Novaya Gazeta reports, citing sources in Syria, that 13 Russians were killed, and “a dozen more were injured.”
• The already mentioned publication of “Znak” quotes the words of the ataman of the village of Svyato-Nikolskaya Oleg Surnin about the losses of the “Wagner PMC” (the conversation with whom took place in the office of the local branch of the Union of Afghan Veterans): “On the first day when this all happened, there was information about 30 dead. As of the day before yesterday, there was already information about 217."
• Bloomberg on Tuesday evening published the loss data, citing an unnamed person. official representative The United States and three Russians “aware of what happened.” Two Russian sources claim that at least 200 “contract soldiers” who fought on the side of the Assad regime were killed in the battle, most of them Russians. The American spokesman says about 100 were killed and 200–300 wounded, but could not say how many of them were from Russia.
• Russian Ministry of Defense: “There are no Russian military personnel in this area of ​​the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor.” Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin does not have information about Russians who may be in Syria, except for military personnel of the Russian Armed Forces.

In Deiz ez-Zor, the Euphrates divides the positions of the warring parties. Pro-Assad forces are on the west bank, the opposition is on the east. On the evening of February 7, a detachment of pro-Assad forces, which included fighters from the Wagner PMC, tried to attack positions on the other side of the river.

David Ignatius, an international commentator and columnist for the Washington Post who was in Syria last week, blogged about the account of Hassan, one of the commanders of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who witnessed the battle on February 7. Hasan claims that on that day intelligence was received about an impending attack by pro-Assad forces on the headquarters of his forces, where American advisers were also located. And at 9:30 pm, about half an hour before the attack, he called the Russian liaison officer in Deir ez-Zor in the hope of preventing it. "We said that there was some movement and that we did not want to strike. [The Russians] did not accept our proposal and said that nothing was happening," Hassan told reporters through a translator.

The US military took similar measures, Ignatius notes, citing a Pentagon statement: "Coalition forces were in contact with the Russian side before, during and after the attack. Russian representatives assured that they were not involved in a clash with coalition forces in the area."

The attack began around 10 p.m., Hasan said, under cover of tanks and artillery fire. Among the attackers, he said, were Russians, presumably mercenaries. An airstrike was carried out against the attackers, killing, according to the Pentagon, more than 100 people. Hasan believes that there were Russians among them. According to him, during the airstrike, a Russian liaison officer contacted him again, asking for a pause to pick up the dead and wounded.

"TVNZ", citing an unnamed source in the Wagner PMC, confirms that the battle on the night of February 7-8 was: “Considering that the Kurdish formations had occupied a large oil plant on the left bank of the Euphrates without serious reasons, the command of the PMC decided to try to recapture it ". The calculation was that, having seen impressive forces, the Kurds would not resist and retreat. However, the American officers who were in the SDF positions had a different opinion. US representatives contacted the Russian side several times. And they confirmed that they were not conducting military operations in this area. After that, the Americans were not shy."

The newspaper quotes a direct speech from a “source in the PMC”: “They simply crushed us. First artillery, then helicopters... The dead, of course, were not 600 or 200. But American statistics are very close to reality. Surely they saw that we were preparing for assault on its bridgehead on the left bank... As a result, the 5th assault detachment was almost completely killed, burned along with its equipment.”

• Although Bloomberg calls the incident "possibly the deadliest clash between citizens of two states - former opponents on the Cold War since its end,” the American representative emphasized that there was no question of the possibility of a direct clash between the US and Russian militaries.
• The target of the attack by pro-Assad forces, including fighters from the Wagner PMC, according to many reports, was an oil facility under the control of Syrian opposition units. The publication Fontanka.ru claimed last year that a quarter of the gas and oil produced in the territory conquered for Bashar al-Assad could go to a company associated with someone close to the Kremlin Russian entrepreneur Evgeny Prigozhin. At the same time, it was alleged that the businessman is connected with Wagner PMC. Prigogine denied this.

Correspondent Nakanune.RU managed to find a man who served in one of the most secret military units in Russia - the private military company "Wagner". The major defeat and death of the fifth company of the PMC on the banks of the Euphrates near the city of Hisham in Syria forced Russian mercenaries to speak out loud about betraying people for the sake of the interests and ambitions of the command and investors, and politicians about the legalization of PMCs and the urgent adoption of the relevant law. Who are they, the “soldiers of fortune” of the 21st century, what are these people ready for? Whether they do it for money or are driven by something else, read our exclusive interview.

Our hero does not agree to talk to us right away, asks for time to “think”, but still gives the go-ahead for dialogue through one of the Internet messengers and on the condition that we keep his name and biographical details incognito. This is understandable: the terms of the contract require deathly silence even after dismissal from the unit. The only thing we can add to the portrait is that our interlocutor, before his business trip to Syria, had previously gone through the war in Donbass as a volunteer, however, like many of those who serve with Wagner today.

Tell us how people get into the “Wagner group”. Who are these “soldiers of fortune” anyway?

It was quite difficult to get into Wagner's group up to a certain point. In 2017, the selection conditions were softened, and people with combat experience and those who had been through a hot spot in the Donbass began to be recruited. It was enough to pass the standards - running 3 km in 12.5 minutes and 15-20 pull-ups. In addition, a drug test is required (if the result is positive, the person is denied a device). And a security check. Only then the long-awaited device.

Money. How long can a person risk his life in the desert in what is essentially someone else’s war?

As for money, the answer is very simple - this is an amount from 150 to 240 thousand rubles. per month depending on the position. Plus, we were also paid bonuses from 30% to 100% of the salary, depending on the combat missions completed. But most often there was deception with bonuses. We didn't see them. That's what guys take risks for.

There are rumors that, despite all the promotion of PMCs, the weapons in the group, to put it mildly, are not very good.

Yes that's right. The weapons were varied: from old DR-46 machine guns to Mosin rifles and ending with quite normal weapons - PKM machine guns, AK-74 Kalashnikov assault rifles. From time to time there were also such exotics as AS "Val", PKP "Pecheneg". The snipers had more modern weapons: "Steyr Mannlicher" - these are Austrian sniper rifles.

But, basically, the predominance of old Soviet weapons, which, however, are not inferior in reliability to modern ones.

From the stories of old employees of the Wagner group, when they participated in the fighting in Ukraine, everything was fine with weapons. Everyone was armed with new weapons. Even during the first missions to Syria in the fall of 2015, the tank company of the Wagner group had T-90 and T-72B3 tanks on its account.

After the first business trip, it all disappeared without a trace. And the quality of weapons began to deteriorate. KORD machine guns were replaced by DShK, T-72 and T-90 tanks were suddenly replaced by T-62 tanks. D-30 artillery guns were diluted with old Soviet M-30s. And so on.

What tasks are set for the personnel?

The tasks for the Wagner group as a whole were set to be very diverse. From assault operations and frontal attacks, to the defense of strong points, when there were slight lulls on the front line.

How do you interact with Syrian units? Their attitude towards PMCs from Russia?

Interaction with the Syrian troops was practically minimal; their units in those situations that I know about were mostly on hand. Most of the Syrian troops turned back after hearing the first explosions and shots. I will also note that, judging by my experience, all the work for the Syrian army was done by: Wagner, ISIS hunters * (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) - ISIS-hunters, the Iranian special forces Hezbollah, and in some places the Islamic Revolutionary Guard units "there were, and one can note some units of the Syrian army (which can be counted on one hand). And all this was supported by the Russian Aerospace Forces, plus special operations forces of the Special Operations Forces also worked... The Syrian army was more than incapable of combat.

PMC commanders with Vladimir Putin

By the way, who are ISIS-hunters and how connected are they with PMCs?

ISIS* hunters are not associated with PMCs; I know that they were trained by Wagner instructors as a unit for cleaning up and identifying individuals who were associated with ISIS*.

Life How is food organized? What are the difficulties in everyday life?

What difficulties did you have in everyday life? And it happened, there was not enough water, it happened, every drop counted: only 4.5 liters per day, considering that you are in the desert. After the battles near Deir ez-Zor, the norm was increased to 9 liters. Food was in the form of army dry rations (and quite fresh). And when there wasn’t enough, they could go to the store to buy something. Buy potatoes, watermelon and all those delights that were missing on the front line. By the way, everyone was allocated $150 a month for “cigarette expenses” - that’s about 80 thousand liras in local money.

Why did you go there yourself? What inspired you?

Why did I go there? It's simple: make money and get better financial situation. Which is what I did. On the plus side, I bought what I wanted; on the downside, I spoiled my health a little. Now the concussion is taking its toll.

How did you get there?

All flights were regular charters.

Was it scary there? How fighting Are Syria and Donbass different in character?

Yes, of course, it’s scary... only fools and crazy people aren’t afraid.

The first two weeks went crazy. Then I got used to it and in between fights I started reading the books that the guys had, and it became easier.

If we compare the war in Ukraine and Syria, then these two conflicts cannot be compared. In the event of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, it will be a combined arms battle with the use of tanks, artillery and, possibly, aviation (from the Ukrainian Armed Forces). In Syria, we can practically talk about the same thing, but on a reduced scale, except that ISIS * did not have aviation, artillery in sufficient quantities and did not have armored vehicles. However, it was replaced by “jihad mobiles” with a variety of weapons. Yes and climatic conditions incomparable.

Don't you think that you are "cannon fodder" there?

This thought sometimes comes to mind that we were cannon fodder there, because every attack on the enemy head-on resulted in losses, every third fighter was a load of “200” (killed, - editor’s note) and “300” (wounded, - editor's note).

Such big losses?

The losses are large, given the recent disaster with the “5th” (the same 5th company of Wagner, which was defeated on February 7, 2018 by a strike by coalition forces led by the United States - editor's note).

What do you think about "5"?

What do I think... I think if you followed all the news, it would become clear that the goal was to “squeeze” oil plants and oil fields from the Kurds. So they were destroyed because of the ambitions of the command and investors who planned to start extracting oil there.

It's a pity, of course, guys. You won't get them back. My friends were there too...

Why didn't Russia cover the guys? And could she?

Why weren't ours covered? Everything here is quite simple: the Wagner group is not part of the RF Armed Forces, but the RF Ministry of Defense, as far as I can tell, is subordinate. It’s easier for our guys to disown the guys than to stand up for them. The "ICHTHAMN" phenomenon is obvious. But they exist.

Tell us about a memorable fight.

Sorry, of course, I won’t say anything about combat. Where he participated, what detachment he was in, all this will remain under the veil of secrecy. I don't want problems. I can only say one thing, “Wagner” is cannon fodder, and they don’t really take losses into account when performing tasks.

What are the guarantees that you will not be tried in Russia for mercenarism?

There are no guarantees that everyone former employees The Wagner Group will not be sent to prison for mercenarism. But for now I live in peace.

What are the terms of the contract?

The terms of the contract were written separately. As mentioned above, the salary amount is 240 thousand rubles. per month. Plus, in case of death, compensation in the amount of 5 million rubles was paid. relatives.

By the way, how many of you were there in Syria?

In general, there are 1.8 thousand soldiers on staff and there are also “catalog soldiers” - these are service personnel in the form of cooks, loaders, and so on. They receive much less, but they also take risks. But, you see, the salary is 100 thousand rubles. for a cook - very good.

Why did you quit? Don't you want to come back?

There are many reasons for dismissal, but I won’t say the main ones. After latest events I lost my desire to return there. There are no guarantees that a similar catastrophe that happened to the “five” will not happen again.

To the hotheads, to those who want to go there to fight, what do you say?

And I’ll tell the hotheads one thing: it’s your life and your choice. Nobody forces you to go there. If you choose, then go, if you earn money and return home safe, then good. If you die, rest in peace. No one will judge you for this. Simple and subjective.

After the main part of the interview, our hero will add a few more nuances. In particular, he does not have any souvenir photographs from the Syrian “sands”, since before the departure the command confiscated all phones and gadgets with cameras and people were there without communication. "If you're caught with a phone, you'll be fined your entire month's salary, so your best gadgets are a compass and wrist watch" , - said our counterpart.

*ISIS is a terrorist organization banned in Russia

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Interviewed by Alexander the Syrian

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What is the connection between the “Kremlin list” published on January 30 and the destruction of a Russian military convoy in Syria? The most direct way is that they line up in a single logical chain.

So, in order: about big losses Russian PMC in Syria, some domestic media and a number of Western ones reported. According to their information, the death toll could range from several dozen to several hundred.

Sources report that in the province of Deir ez-Zor on February 7, the 5th detachment of the Wagner PMC was on the march when US artillery opened targeted fire on them, and immediately after the coalition aircraft launched strikes that destroyed the columns, including helicopters and “ gunship AS-130.

Data was taken from posts in in social networks, as well as publications by bloggers, including the former self-named “Minister of Defense of the DPR” Igor Strelkov-Girkin. Also, according to information, there are transcripts of radio interceptions in which two unidentified persons talk about losses.

The relevant departments of the Russian Federation do not comment on this message. The fact of the shelling of the Assad army was confirmed by the Ministry of Defense employees, and noted (as it later turned out that they had lied) that there were no Russian citizens at the scene of the incident, and sudden fire (artillery and mortar) was applied to the Assad formations, and immediately after it airstrike by US-led forces " international coalition", the department reported. As a result of the attack, 25 Syrian militiamen were injured of varying degrees of severity, the representative of the Ministry of Defense added.

It is worth noting that PMC employees are not actually military personnel, and the defense department has never reported losses in their ranks before.

In Syria, similar incidents have happened before, since the situation there remained very tense for quite a long time. Thus, earlier the press reported that on September 20, 2016, a Caliber missile from a Russian ship eliminated the headquarters of the operational command of Syrian anti-government rebels, which, according to a number of sources, included Western and American instructors. Then this incident was not made public, since acknowledgment of losses at the official level would require an immediate decisive response, for which the States were not ready at that time.

From the outside Russian Federation nothing was reported either, because there was no need for them to aggravate an already very acute situation.

More than once, military experts from the United States, carrying out their functions in the ranks of the Kurdish People's Self-Defense, came under fire from Turkish-controlled formations and special forces in the area of ​​the city of Afrin. It is assumed that the US military also suffered losses in those cases. But even then no one officially commented on these incidents. At the same time, what supposedly happened now does not fit into the standard, so to speak, scheme.

Now everything has changed: the American press almost instantly made a statement that Russian PMC fighters were present at the site of the retaliatory strike by the coalition forces.

In addition, the CBS News channel, citing a source in the Pentagon, stated that Russian citizens were present in the columns at which fire was opened. At the same time, according to the source, neither the Syrian militias nor those same Russians even thought of going on an attack against the Americans and the “Democratic Forces of Syria.” Their plans included taking control of only the oil refinery. The TV channel notes that if the data is confirmed, these will be the first losses among Russians destroyed by the US Armed Forces in Syria.

Why have there been such dramatic changes in coverage? The answer comes naturally: if we compare the death of the Wagnerites near Deir ez-Zor and the open attack on Putin’s encirclement, which was announced on January 30, the day of publication of the so-called. "Kremlin report".

Now it becomes obvious that this incident indicates, first of all, that by destroying a convoy that obviously contained Russian mercenaries fighting in the interests of Russian oligarchs, the US authorities took a demonstrative step. Once again confirming the assumptions that on January 30, by publishing the so-called “Kremlin list”, which included the entire Russian political and business elite, the United States actually set a course for the “demolition” of the current government in the Kremlin. That the Americans’ goal is capitulation, and not the transformation of the Putin regime during the new “successor” operation. Therefore, in the coming months, we will most likely witness how the Kremlin will receive one painful blow (not only to pride), but to what is “sacred” itself, assets, people, families, influence. 2018 promises to be an interesting year...

Alexandra Melnik

I in no way want anyone to get the impression that I am gloating over the Russians who died in Deir ez-Zor. Yes, they are mercenaries who deliberately risked their lives for the oil ambitions of the oligarch Prigozhin. However, to put it mildly, this is not the most honorable job - these simple guys from the Russian outback were not pushed by any means a good life and a thirst for adventure, but need, hopelessness, and lack of prospects in their homeland. Which, in fact, is the direct result of Putin’s 18-year rule