President Vladimir Putin confirmed on 17 March that Russian special forces, artillery, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) units have been operating in Syria.
In a ceremony held at the Hall of the Order of St George in the Kremlin, Putin presented medals and decorations to 17 service personnel, including making four Heroes of Russia: the country’s highest honour.
Awards were made to a “missile artillery” commander from the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade and an officer of the 120th Artillery Brigade. A Russian army UAV operator was also honoured, as well as a female officer from an air defence unit.
The senior ground forces officer who oversaw the Russian intervention, Colonel General Alexander Dvornikov, was named in public by the Kremlin for the first time.
Putin lavished praise on the pilots and commanders of the Russian Aerospace Force and several were honoured, including a number of senior test pilots.
The role of the Russian aerospace industry in sustaining the operation of deployed combat aircraft was highlighted by the president, with Sergei Smirnov, deputy director-general of Sukhoi’s Novosibirsk Aircraft Work being honoured with a medal.
Putin confirmed that four Russian servicemen have been killed in Syria when he named four widows who had been invited to the ceremony.
The official Russian death toll is four, but one of the widows named by Putin was called Yulia Zhuravlev, apparently confirming for the first time that a fifth soldier called Fyodor Zhuravlev had been killed.
Zhuravlev is reported to have been a Military Intelligence (GRU) special forces operator who died in Syria in November.
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