Russian Defense Ministry has recently published the first detailed official data on the number of soldiers who took part in the Syrian operations. Since 2015, 63,000 military, including 434 generals, have been involved in the conflict.
At first, the Russian authorities did not reveal the number. In December 2017, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu officially announced that ‘more than 48,000 soldiers of the Russian army got invaluable combat experience in Syria’.
Shoigu said that at the final session of the Defense Ministry – he reported to president Vladimir Putin the implementation of his decision on the withdrawal of the main body of Russian troops from Syria. Thus, it turns out that after the space of eight months, their number has not reduced, but increased by nearly one third (15,000).
The Defense Ministry included the official data in a video posted on its official Youtube channel. According to them, 63 012 Russian soldiers took part in the war in Syria, including 25,738 officers and 434 generals.
91% of Russian army air crews, 97% of military transport crews and 60% of strategic aviation crews got in-theatre experience in Syria. As a result of Russian attacks, more than 86,000 anti-Assad ‘militants’ and 830 leaders have been killed, the Defense Ministry state.
ІІ, belsat.eu, following BBC
