Execution of two captured Russians in Syria. The State Duma announced the execution of two captured Russians in Syria - Eduard communist
Currently, heavy fighting with Islamic State terrorists continues in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor*
Despite a series of high-profile defeats recently, the militants are not going to lay down their arms, putting up desperate resistance. In particular, recently they attacked a number of strong points on the M-20 highway connecting the cities of Deir ez-Zor and Palmyra. According to media reports, as a result of the attack on the village of Shulya, the radicals managed to capture certain “Russian military men.”
Today, the Directorate 4 Telegram channel, with reference to the Amak agency, published a video confirming the capture of Russians who fought against IS* with weapons in their hands. In the footage you can see two men dressed in light clothes, who introduced themselves as Roman Zabolotny and Grigory Turcanu. They report that they were captured in the Shul area. There is also information that both men had already been brutally executed - burned alive.
According to some reports, these are volunteers of the Wagner group. As the media note, the “Wagnerites” play a vital role in the operation of the Syrian government troops against IS*, always being in the most difficult and critical sectors of the front. In particular, they took an active part in the formation and liquidation of the Akerbat cauldron, helped to unblock the city of Deir ez-Zor, and were the first to gain a foothold on the left bank of the Euphrates River.
It is not surprising that the selfless and professional actions of Russian volunteers have become an example for the Syrian government troops, who are pretty tired after several years of bloody war. Probably, the IS* terrorists specifically sought to capture the “Wagnerites” in order to deprive them of their existing heroic aura. But, of course, they will never be able to achieve this.
Apparently, the brutal execution was necessary for the terrorists in order to try to intimidate the Russian volunteers. However, it is futile to think that anyone will succeed; on the contrary, the fighters will strive to avenge their fallen comrades.
It can also be suggested that the burning was revenge on the prisoners for not giving up secret information during interrogations. Thus, Roman Zabolotny and Grigory Turcanu showed real courage and heroism. They had a heavy cross to bear, but they walked this path to the end with honor.
The fighters of the Wagner group are ready to continue to fight international terrorism - there is no doubt that they will not let go of their weapons until the last Islamic radical is destroyed on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic. And the names of the dead volunteers will forever remain in the memory of the Russian and Syrian people - they will be remembered as heroes who gave their lives in the fight against international terrorism.
* Terrorist organization banned in Russia
Grigory Tsurkanov and Roman Zabolotny were captured during the fighting in the city of Deir ez-Zor
On September 28, 2017, SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors the activities of terrorists, reported the appearance of information about the capture of two Russian servicemen in Syria
A news agency close to terrorists wrote about this Amaq. According to his statement Russians were captured during the fighting in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor.
The militants also reported that another Russian serviceman was killed.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has traditionally denied the veracity of this information.
One of the men in the video says that they were captured during the IS counter-offensive in Deir ez-Zor province.
According to the video, the man with the beard is named Zabolotny Roman Vasilievich. He is a native of the village of Rassvet, Aksay district, Rostov region, born in 1979.
The second Russian's name is Tsurkana Grigory Mikhailovich. He is a resident of the Domodedovo district of the Moscow region, born in 1978.
The beard of one of the prisoners in the video may indicate his affiliation with the unofficial Russian private military company Wagner, the charter of which, like other PMCs, does not prohibit facial hair.
After the video appeared, the Russian Ministry of Defense again stated that there were no losses among Russian military personnel in Syria or cases of their capture.
“All military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation located in the Syrian Arab Republic are performing their assigned tasks as intended,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said.
Identification of captured Russian military personnel
On October 3, Russian media reported that the Russian organization The Brotherhood of War. Domodedovo resident of the Moscow region Grigory Tsurkanu, who was a member of this organization.
Grigory Turcanu in ISIS video and photo from the social network It’s a small world
“Yes, it’s him. Somehow he ended up in Syria and was captured. We can’t say anything more,” the organization confirmed.
It was noted that Tsurkanu actually participated in the fighting in Syria, as well as in the former Yugoslavia.
His friend Abakar Osmanov told the media that the captured Russian was also previously in Russian-occupied Donetsk for an unknown purpose.
“I recognized him in the video. I knew that he goes to Syria to fight,” he said, adding that Turcanu was a mercenary.
Profile of the second captured Russian military man - Roman Zabolotny - a Activists of the Conflict Intelligence Team discovered it on the My World portal.
“Based on the profile photo, it can be assumed that Zabolotny served in the Russian Armed Forces, but it is unknown whether at the time of his capture he was a Russian serviceman or a mercenary of the Wagner PMC,” CIT noted.
In addition, according to the Peacemaker, he also previously visited the occupied areas of Donbass.
Kremlin concerns
On October 4, the press secretary of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, commented on the report of capture by Islamic State militants.
“As for perhaps two Russian citizens, military personnel, I propose to focus, of course, first of all on the corresponding statement of the Ministry of Defense. Of course, Moscow is concerned about the fate of these citizens if they are Russian citizens,” he told reporters .
Statement by a Russian deputy on the execution of prisoners
According to the politician, he learned about this “from reliable, verified sources.”
“I would like them to be wrong, but so far the worst fears about his fate have been confirmed. This is a source from the volunteer movement, directly related to Vyun (the nickname of Roman Zabolotny). The movement is monitoring information on all “volunteers” from Russia in Syria and Donbass ", the deputy said.
At the same time, he has no information about the second captured Russian soldier.
“He is not from the Rostov region,” Kotlyarov explained.
Later, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Viktor Vodolatsky said that the militants were the terrorist organization Islamic State.
“I cannot say by what method they were executed, although I know how. We managed to obtain information, including through those militants who were captured by the Syrian army,” he told the media.
According to him, ISIS militants tried to force Russian hostages on camera to renounce the Orthodox faith and swear allegiance Islamic State and take an oath to fight the infidels.
“They refused and paid for it, but remained faithful to Orthodoxy,” Vodolatsky added.
"Victims" of the struggle for oil fields
According to Novaya Gazeta sources in Syria and the Russian Ministry of Defense, The command of the Russian group in Syria did not intend to force the unblocking of Deir ez-Zor and transfer the fighting to the left bank of the Euphrates. But the plans were changed, and one of the consequences of this was the capture of the Wagnerites Tsurkana and Zabolotny.
The State Duma announced the execution of two captured Russians in Syria October 5th, 2017
Moscow. October 5. INTERFAX.RU - Russians Roman Zabolotny and Grigory Tsurkanu, who appeared in a video published by terrorists of the Islamic State (banned in the Russian Federation) as prisoners, were probably both executed in Syria, the deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and connections with compatriots Viktor Vodolatsky.
“The saddest thing is that 99% of Roman Zabolotny is no longer alive, as is the second prisoner. Under the video recording, they were given a paper with which they had to read the text, renounce the Orthodox faith, renounce their homeland, convert to Islam and join the Islamic State “They turned out to be faithful to Orthodoxy and their homeland to the end, for which they were deprived of their lives by these bandits,” Vodolatsky said.
On Thursday, deputy of the Rostov-on-Don City Duma Anatoly Kotlyarov said that the Don Cossack Zabolotny, who appeared in a video published by IS terrorists (banned in the Russian Federation) about the capture of Russians, is most likely executed. “I received information from a reliable source that he was executed in Syria. I would like it not to be so, but so far the information is like this,” Kotlyarov told Interfax.
A comment. It’s sad, of course, but ISIS wouldn’t have treated them differently. Especially after power, at the official level. renounced them. First, they recruited mercenaries into private military companies to fight in Syria for the interests of the Western partners of the “great grandmaster,” and then when the losses and capture of these mercenaries began, the state declared that they were not there and no one promised them anything.
By the way, why doesn’t more than one propagandist and Kremlin bot condemn the Syrian adventure of the “genius of all times and peoples” because our boys are dying in Syria because of him? After all, you were foaming at the mouth and screaming that if you send troops into the Donbass, then our boys might die for the “lazy Donetsk skaklov-hatskrayniks.” And now not a single Shapiro has spoken out on this matter. It turns out that our boys are allowed to die because of the lazy Syrian Alawite Hataskrayniks? That’s why normal people hate you, propagandists and Kremlin bots. And they consider you to be the same freaks as those for whom you work.
Two Russian prisoners, Roman Zabolotny and Grigory Tsurkana, were executed in Syria. Formally, they did not fight in the ranks of the Russian army, but they behaved like real Russian warriors. These are the heroes of our time - those who become symbols of Russia.
ISIS executed two Russian citizens captured last week. , but very similar to the truth.
The fact that two of our soldiers were captured by ISIS became known last week - from messages from the terrorists themselves. And on Tuesday, a video appeared showing two prisoners.
Only one of them spoke - the bearded man. He called himself Roman Zabolotny, a native of the village of Rassvet, Salsky district, Rostov region, and his friend, a native of the Domodedovo district of the Moscow region, Grigory Tsurcanu, born in 1978.
According to Zabolotny, they were captured during a counter-offensive by IS* in the area of the village of Shula, Deir ez-Zor province. There was nothing else in the video - no statements, no demands. It was clear that the prisoners would soon be executed - this is a common practice for ISIS.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that none of the servicemen were captured - indeed, as it soon became clear, both Zabolotny and Tsurcanu fought in Syria under a contract with a PMC. It is no secret that there are several hundred fighters in Syria performing a variety of functions - from security to combat.
So far, ISIS has not been able to capture any of them. Occasionally, videos appeared with prisoners who were declared “Moscow spies” infiltrated into ISIS. But Zabolotny and Tsurkanu became the first fighters captured in battle with weapons in their hands.
One of the Syrian soldiers who was next to them spoke about how this happened after the video appeared on the Arabitoday portal. According to him, he was traveling accompanied by a group of Russian soldiers in two military vehicles near the village of Shula in the province of Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria. However, the drivers did not move quickly, as there were many Syrian checkpoints on the road.
“Therefore we were not afraid of a surprise attack,” however, after leaving Shula, the vehicles came under fire from heavy machine guns. “I was lucky because I was in the second minibus and managed to get out before it was destroyed.”, he noted.
After that, small arms fire began to shoot at the military from the left side, and about 30 militants tried to surround them. The driver of the Ural minibus that was accompanying the minibuses tried to move the minibuses away and clear the road, but was unable to.
“Then the Russian soldiers (and there were ten of them), instead of retreating and leaving, hid behind a sand embankment on the side of the road and engaged in battle with the terrorists. There were about 80 militants, and they had heavy weapons, but they did not expect such resistance.”, said the Syrian soldier.
According to him, the Russians soon ran out of ammunition, and they apparently went into hand-to-hand combat with bladed weapons.
“Now I have seen two of these ten on video and with all my thoughts I empathize with them and their relatives, I will never forget this self-sacrifice”, he noted.
This Syrian story, of course, can still be verified - but it looks like the truth. That is, Zabolotny and Turcanu fought heroically before being captured.
After they were taken alive, there was practically no chance of releasing them - ISIS needs prisoners not for exchange or ransom, but for propaganda and frightening executions. It is clear that our special services tried to find ways to get the prisoners out, but by and large there was no time or opportunity.
On Thursday morning, Rostov-on-Don City Duma deputy Anatoly Kotlyarov said that, according to his information, Zabolotny had already been executed:
“I learned about this from reliable, verified sources. I wish they were wrong, but so far their worst fears about his fate are confirmed. This is a source from the volunteer movement, directly related to Vyun (Roman Zabolotny’s call sign).”
Surely, Turcanu had already died - two of his children were left without a father.
Could they have survived? Yes, they had a chance to prolong their lives in captivity - if they had done what the ISIS fighters demanded. As State Duma deputy Ataman Viktor Vodolatsky said (he knew the Cossack Zabolotny), the prisoners were asked to declare joining ISIS:“The information is confirmed that after that part of the video message that was shown on social networks, they were given a paper that they had to read on camera. They had to read the text, renounce the Orthodox faith, renounce their homeland, convert to Islam and join IS. They turned out to be faithful to Orthodoxy and their Motherland to the end, for which they were deprived of their lives by these bandits.”.
You can also doubt the ataman’s story, grin skeptically - how does he know about this? But you can also follow the simplest path - the path of truth.
And the point is that we got two heroes, two martyrs who gave their lives for their Motherland.
The other day marked the 75th anniversary of the creation of the “Young Guard” - more than one generation of Soviet people was brought up on the feat of young underground fighters, but now almost no one remembered the anniversary. The country and the people do not have the right to forget their heroes - otherwise we will be reborn, without the past we will have no future.
Now many people complain about the current times - everything is not the same, there are no ideals, no faith, where are the real heroes... But they are all around us - we just need to look and see, admit the obvious.
Our heroes are Russian warriors. They defend their homeland, they do not renounce their faith and ancestors. In 1996, 19-year-old private Evgeniy Rodionov, who was captured in Chechnya, did not remove his cross and was executed. Today Zabolotny and Tsurkanu did not renounce their homeland and faith - and were executed.The heroes around us are Motorola and Mozgovoy, Nurbagandov and Givi, senior lieutenant Alexander Prokhorenko, who died heroically last year in Homs, and General Valery Asapov, who fell last month in the battles for Deir ez-Zor. The Syrian campaign gave us examples of the courage and resilience of our military, and Roman Zabolotny and Grigory Tsurkanu are real heroes of Russia.
They will be remembered, in time they will become symbolic figures. But they also need to be awarded state awards. This must be done not as a sign of gratitude and respect, not for the sake of their family and friends, but for our own sake, so that we have a future. It’s not the dead who need this, it’s the living who need it.
* An organization in respect of which the court made a decision that has entered into legal force to liquidate or prohibit its activities on the grounds provided for by the Federal Law “On Combating Extremist Activities”