A 28-year-old junior sergeant, who went to Syria in October 2018, was killed, BBC reports with reference to his family.
According to the death certificate, Andranik Arustamyan, a resident of Russia’s Orenburg region, died on November 2, 2018 at a checkpoint located 30 km away from the city of Deir ez-Zor. Arustamyan was a contractee in the Russian Army.
He was opening a mine road block, but he failed to hold it – as a result, four mines exploded. The junior sergeant got fatal injuries. A day later, the body was taken to Moscow; on November 4, he was buried in his native village. The Ministry of Defense did not issue any report on Arustamyan’s death.
“An anti-tank mine does not detonate if it is dropped from low altitude. The major purpose of this operation is promoting Russian weapons. They send most-advanced missiles, aircraft and tanks to Syria, but ammunition, shells and mines are of Soviet-era, many of them should have been disposed of long time ago. The exploded mines might have been defective,” his relative believes.
In early November, the Russian Novaya Gazeta reported about the accident on the Damascus – Deir ez-Zor road. According to their information, 11 persons were killed – five fighters of the Syrian government army and six people who allegedly were fighters of the PMC Wagner. The grouping of Russian mercenaries led by Commander Dmitry Utkin is supposedly financed by Evgeny Prigozhin whose nickname is ‘Putin’s Chef’. It is to be recalled that Wagner fought for separatists in Donbas before their coming to Syria as which earlier.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has never confirmed PMC Wagner casualties.
In 2017, Belsat found out that Alyaksei Yarashevich, a resident of Homiel and alleged member of PMC Wagner, died in September near Deir ez-Zor. Other Belarusian-born soldiers of the secret unit regularly visited our countryand even had new passports made here.
КА, belsat.eu
