Family psychology 

A Russian helicopter was shot down in Syria. Didn’t return from Aleppo: why a Russian helicopter was shot down in Syria. Why do they say that the crew died heroically?

Since September 30 last year, when Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft began carrying out airstrikes on large militant control centers, accumulations of equipment, ammunition depots, and infrastructure facilities for the oil business of the Islamic State terrorist organization banned in Russia, many of these facilities have been destroyed.

“That is why most of the fighters and bombers of the Russian Aerospace Forces returned to their places of permanent deployment on Russian territory,” our interlocutor said. — But helicopters in Syria will not be without work for a long time.

It is helicopters that today bear the main burden of providing fire support to the Syrian government army during local clashes. It is helicopters that “hunt” individual mobile groups of militants.

During the “free hunt”, on July 8, a flight of five helicopters flew from the Khmeimim airbase in the direction of Homs province and a Mi-35M helicopter, controlled by a crew consisting of Colonel Khabibullin and Lieutenant Dolgin, was shot down.

Al Jazeera TV channel reported on the disaster on July 8. But representatives of the Khmeimim air base denied the information, saying that all military equipment had returned to their base and there were no losses. A day later, the military department was forced to admit the death of Colonel Ryafagat Khabibullin and Lieutenant Evgeniy Dolgin, but continued to insist that it was a Syrian Mi-25 helicopter, flown by Russian pilot instructors.

On Sunday, a video of the helicopter crash appeared on the Internet. Experts identified that the militants shot down a new Russian Mi-35M helicopter. The version that the helicopter was shot down by an American BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missile system raises doubts. The fact is that a more powerful flash is visually visible from the charge of the ATGM warhead, which weighs about six kilograms. The recording apparently showed that the tail section of the helicopter was hit by a man-portable anti-aircraft missile system (MANPADS).

The same video explains why the infrared traps did not work: the Mi-35M was shot down at the moment of the attack. And as the military pilots explained to me, the shooting of infrared traps occurs after the attack, during a combat turn to return to the base point. And at this time the helicopter is practically defenseless against ground-based firing systems.

Ryafagat Khabibullin

The death of Colonel Khabibullin came as a shock to all Russian military pilots. The fact is that 51-year-old Ryafagat Khabibullin was a legendary officer, one of the most media-famous active pilots. The military unit stationed in the village of Korenovsk in the Krasnodar Territory, which he commanded, was visited by both President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. There are dozens of video reports on the Internet in which unit commander Ryafagat Khabibullin talks about the service and the combat training of young pilots.

Military pilots who knew the officer told me that back in 1995, Ryafagat Khabibullin was nominated for the title of Hero of Russia. But they limited themselves to the Order of Courage.

On April 30, 1995, in the Nozhai-Yurt region of Chechnya, a Mi-24, which was piloted by the crew of Captain Khabibullin, was fired upon from the ground and knocked out. Two crew members were killed, Ryafagat was seriously injured, but he made it to the territory of Dagestan and was able to land... As soon as the downed helicopter touched the ground, the officer lost consciousness from loss of blood... The officer was awarded the Order in the hospital, where he spent almost a year. They wanted to commission him, but he won the right to fly and continued to serve in the 55th helicopter regiment, stationed in Korenovsk, where he rose to the position of unit commander.

Information about 24-year-old Lieutenant Evgeniy Dolgin is much more scarce. It is known that he, like his commander, graduated from the Syzran Military School. Evgeny’s father, Viktor Dolgin, is also a military pilot who served in the Chechen campaign. Evgeny Dolgin arrived in Syria only in June.

On December 1, 2015, the 393rd Sevastopol Army Aviation Base, commanded by Colonel Khabibulin since 2010, returned to its previous name - the 55th separate army aviation regiment of the 4th Army of the Aerospace Forces and Air Defense. Even then, it became clear to the unit’s officers that this renaming was connected with the transfer to Syria. And in fact, they couldn’t transfer the Krasnodar airbase to the Khmeimim airbase.

On July 8, Colonel Khabibullin personally led a flight of five helicopters on a “free hunt” for Islamic terrorists. And did not return from a combat mission

Helicopters and pilots were transferred from Korenovsk to Khmeimim in March 2016. Colonel Ryafagat Khabibullin also went to Syria with his subordinates. And as our sources in Syria say, the officer flew combat missions almost every day.

“There is nothing extraordinary in the fact that the regiment commander personally flew out on a combat mission,” a representative of the Ministry of Defense told Novaya.

Take, for example, the demining of Palmyra by a detachment of specialists from the International Mine Action Center of the Russian Armed Forces, transferred to Syria from Nakhabino, near Moscow.

“The operation was personally led by the chief of the engineering troops of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Yuri Stavitsky,” our interlocutor at the Ministry of Defense told Novaya.


Mi-35 helicopter of the Russian Aerospace Forces in Syria. Photo: RIA Novosti

On July 8, Colonel Khabibullin personally led a flight of five helicopters on a “free hunt” for Islamic terrorists. And he did not return from the combat mission.

On Tuesday, the coffin with the body of Ryafagat Khabibullin was delivered to the Krasnodar Territory, to Korenovsk, where his fellow soldiers said goodbye to the officer.

The officer will be buried in his native village of Vyazovy Gai, where the officer’s mother lives.

The Ministry of Defense reported the loss of another helicopter of the Aerospace Forces as part of an operation against militants in Syria. According to the department, on August 1, a Mi-8 military transport helicopter returning to the Khmeimim airbase after delivering humanitarian aid to Aleppo was shot at from the ground in the Syrian province of Idlib. Earlier, Al-Jazeera TV channel reported that a helicopter shot down by the opposition fell in the south of Aleppo province.

“On board the helicopter were three crew members and two officers from the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria. The fate of Russian military personnel is being clarified through all available channels,” the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

The opposition news agency Shahba Press reported, “ that's all crew members died. The Kremlin said there is “no precise information yet” on the number of people killed in the incident.

“Those who were in the helicopter, according to information received from the Ministry of Defense, died. They died heroically because they tried to take the car away in order to minimize casualties on the ground. The Kremlin deeply sympathizes with all the loved ones of our fallen servicemen,” the presidential press secretary told reporters.

The General Staff is trying to clarify the whereabouts of Russian military personnel. The head of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General, said that “according to available information, the helicopter was shot down from the ground over an area under the control of armed formations and units of the so-called “moderate opposition” that joined it.” He qualified the incident as a terrorist act.

“Today a terrorist attack was committed as a result of which a Russian military transport helicopter Mi-8 was shot down, returning after carrying out a humanitarian mission to deliver food and medicine to residents of the city of Aleppo,” the general said.

— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) August 1, 2016

MENA journalist Björn Stritzel also tweeted a photo of a missile block with the caption: “In Soviet Russia, 57 mm rockets are considered humanitarian aid.”


Analyst of the International Strategic Institute IISS, editor of The Military Balance, Joseph Dempsey, in his microblog, draws attention to the details of the rotorcraft, calling the model Mi-8 AMTSH (transport-assault modification). In particular, to a container located in the tail section of the helicopter with, presumably, the President-S electronic warfare system.


Let us recall that the Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria was created on February 22, 2016 at the Khmeimim airbase to facilitate the negotiation process on reconciliation between representatives of the Syrian authorities and the opposition, with the exception of the Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat groups banned in Russia and other countries al-Nusra" and other organizations recognized as terrorist by the UN Security Council, as well as to conclude ceasefire agreements and organize the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Last week, Russia, together with the Syrian government, began a new stage of the humanitarian operation in Syria - four humanitarian corridors were opened in the besieged city of Aleppo: three for civilians and one for militants with weapons and equipment. Since then, the number of settlements in the SAR that have joined the truce has reached 327. In the last 24 hours alone, reconciliation agreements have been concluded with representatives of 17 settlements in the provinces of Es-Suwayda and Latakia.

According to the center, the ceasefire regime has been observed in most provinces over the past 24 hours.

However, four violations were recorded in Damascus province per day, and two more in Latakia.

“Formations of the Jaysh al-Islam group, which considers itself to be an opposition group, fired mortars at the settlements of Jawbar, Arbil, Duma and Harasta in Damascus province. In the province of Latakia, the armed formations of the Free Syrian Army shelled the settlements of Thoubal and Zuaikat,” the bulletin says.

A Russian military Mi-8 helicopter was shot down in Syria, the Ministry of Defense said. The fate of the pilots is unknown. The helicopter was returning after delivering humanitarian aid to Aleppo, where Russia launched a humanitarian operation last week

Mi-8 helicopter in Syria, October 2015 (Photo: Dmitry Vinogradov/RIA Novosti)

As stated in a statement by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense, a Russian military Mi-8 helicopter was shot down on Monday, August 1, in the Syrian province of Idlib. On board were three crew members and two officers from the Russian Center for Reconciliation. Nothing is known yet about their fate.

The report clarifies that the helicopter crashed “as a result of shelling from the ground” when it was returning to the Khmeimim airbase “after delivering humanitarian aid in the city of Aleppo” (quotes from RIA Novosti). Last week, Russia announced the start of a humanitarian operation in Aleppo, opening three corridors for civilians and another for those leaving the city with weapons.

The fate of Russian military personnel is being clarified through all available channels, the Ministry of Defense emphasizes.

In images posted by users social networks , shows the body of a dead man and Russian documents allegedly taken from the helicopter, writes Reuters.

​Earlier on Monday, Reuters, citing the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported that. Human rights activists were unable to clarify the ownership of the aircraft. At the same time, Orient News, which Reuters calls opposition, reported that rebels shot down a Syrian helicopter and that its pilot was captured.

During the Syrian operation, the Russian Aerospace Forces group lost a Su-24 aircraft shot down by a Turkish fighter, a Mi-8 helicopter shot down by a Turkoman group during a rescue operation, and a Mi-28 helicopter that crashed as a result of a crew error. The American intelligence and analytical company Stratfor also published in May photographs of four burnt-out Mi-24 helicopters, presumably belonging to the Russian army. The Russian Ministry of Defense denied this information.

During Russia's military operation in Syria, which began on September 30, 2015, 14 Russian servicemen were killed. The military department reported the last victim on July 22. Then in the province of Aleppo, accompanying a convoy of cars with food for local residents. An improvised explosive device exploded next to the car where he was.

The Russian coordination center for reconciliation of conflicting parties in Syria began work at the Khmeimim airbase in February this year. Its tasks include facilitating the negotiation process on reconciliation between the Syrian authorities and the opposition, with the exception of organizations recognized as terrorist by the UN Security Council.

ALL PHOTOS

On Monday, August 1, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was shot down in the Syrian province of Idlib. There were five military personnel on board: three crew members and two officers, the press service and information department of the Russian Ministry of Defense told Interfax. They all died. The head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Sergei Rudskoy, said that the crash area is under the control of the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra (banned in the Russian Federation).

“On August 1, in the province of Idlib, as a result of shelling from the ground, a Russian military transport helicopter Mi-8, returning to the Khmeimim airbase after delivering humanitarian aid to the city of Aleppo, was shot down,” the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.

“On board the helicopter were three crew members and two officers from the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Warring Parties in Syria,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The Ministry of Defense said they were investigating the fate of the military. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that everyone in the helicopter died.

“Unfortunately, you already know the tragic news that came from Syria. A helicopter crashed there and was shot down from the ground,” Peskov said. “Everyone who was in the helicopter, as far as we know, died. They died heroically because they tried to take the car away in order to minimize casualties on the ground,” Peskov said.

He added that the Kremlin deeply sympathizes with the relatives of the fallen servicemen, RBC reports.

Meanwhile, the Shahba Press agency, close to the opposition, reports only four deaths, writes The Wall Street Journal.

Later, the Syria Today Twitter account published a video of the burning wreckage of the helicopter and local residents gathered around it.

August 1, 2016

One of the photographs shows militants dragging a body along the ground - presumably one of the military men in the helicopter; according to the militants, the pilot.

According to information not yet confirmed by the Russian military, the pilot’s name is Oleg Shelamov, judging by his passport data, he is a native of the city of Torzhok, Tver Region.

According to CIT, the place of work of the deceased pilot is Klin, near Moscow.