family psychology 

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

Since September 30 last year, when the aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces began to carry out airstrikes on major command posts of militants, the accumulation of equipment, ammunition depots, infrastructure facilities of 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 the territory of Russia,” our interlocutor said. - But helicopters in Syria will not be out of work for a long time.

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

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

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

On Sunday, a video of the moment of the helicopter crash appeared on the Internet. Specialists identified that the militants shot down a new Russian Mi-35M helicopter. The version that the helicopter was shot down by the American anti-tank missile system BGM-71 TOW raises doubts. The fact is that from the charge of the ATGM warhead, weighing about six kilograms, a more powerful flash is visually visible. The record, apparently, recorded the defeat of the tail of the helicopter by a man-portable air defense system (MANPADS).

The same video explains why the infrared traps did not work: the Mi-35M was shot down at the time of the attack. And as the military pilots explained to me, the shooting of infrared traps occurs after the attack, during the 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 was a shock to all Russian military pilots. The fact is that the 51-year-old Ryafagat Khabibullin was a legendary officer, one of the most famous active pilots in the media. 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. Dozens of video reports have been preserved on the Internet in which the unit commander Ryafagat Khabibullin talks about the service, about 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-Yurtovsky district of Chechnya, the Mi-24, which was piloted by the crew of Captain Khabibullin, was fired from the ground and knocked out. Two crew members died, Ryafagat was seriously injured, but he pulled the helicopter 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 order was awarded to the officer 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 the 24-year-old lieutenant Evgeny 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 went through the Chechen campaign. Yevgeny Dolgin arrived in Syria only in June.

On December 1, 2015, the 393rd Sevastopol Air Base of Army Aviation, which had been commanded by Colonel Khabibulin since 2010, was returned to its former name - the 55th Separate Army Aviation Regiment of the 4th Air Force and Air Defense Army. Even then, it became clear to the officers of the unit that this renaming was connected with the transfer to Syria. And in fact, they could not transfer the Krasnodar air base to the Khmeimim air base.

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 went to Syria together with his subordinates. And as our sources in Syria say, the officer made sorties almost daily.

“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 Gazeta.

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

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


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 did not return from a combat mission.

On Tuesday, the coffin with the body of Ryafagat Khabibullin was delivered to the Krasnodar Territory, to Korenovsk, where his brother-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 announced the loss of another helicopter of the Aerospace Forces as part of an operation against militants in Syria. According to the agency, on August 1, a Mi-8 military transport helicopter returning to the Khmeimim airbase after delivering humanitarian aid to Aleppo was fired from the ground in the Syrian province of Idlib. Earlier, the 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 of the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria. The fate of the Russian servicemen is being ascertained through all available channels," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The opposition news agency Shahba Press reported, “ what all crew members were killed. The Kremlin said that there is "no exact 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 steal the car in order to minimize casualties on the ground. The Kremlin expresses deep condolences to all the relatives of our dead servicemen, ”the presidential press secretary told reporters.

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

“Today, a terrorist act was committed as a result of which a Russian Mi-8 military transport helicopter was shot down, returning from a humanitarian mission to deliver food and medicine to the 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 cluster with the caption: "In Soviet Russia, 57mm 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 and assault modification). In particular, on a container placed in the tail section of the helicopter with, presumably, the President-S electronic warfare system.


Recall that the Center for the Reconciliation of the Warring Parties in Syria was established 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), Jabhat 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, launched a new stage of a 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, agreements on reconciliation have been concluded with representatives of 17 settlements in the provinces of As-Suwayda and Latakia.

According to the center, the cessation of hostilities has been observed in most provinces over the past 24 hours.

Nevertheless, four violations were recorded in the province of Damascus during the day, and two more in Latakia.

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

A Russian Mi-8 military helicopter was shot down in Syria, the Defense Ministry said. The fate of the pilots is not known. 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 Defense Ministry, 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 about their fate yet.

The report clarifies that the helicopter crashed “as a result of shelling from the ground” while returning to the Khmeimim airbase “after the delivery of humanitarian aid in the city of Aleppo” (RIA Novosti quotes). Last week, Russia announced the start of a humanitarian operation in Aleppo, opening three corridors for the civilian population and one more for those who would leave the city with weapons.

The fate of the Russian servicemen is being ascertained through all available channels, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

On images posted by users social networks , shows the body of a dead person and Russian documents allegedly taken in a helicopter, writes Reuters.

Earlier on Monday, Reuters, citing the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported that . Human rights activists could not clarify the ownership of the aircraft. At the same time, Orient News, which Reuters calls opposition, reported that the rebels shot down a Syrian helicopter and that its pilot was captured.

During the Syrian operation, the Russian Aerospace Forces lost a Su-24 plane shot down by a Turkish fighter, an 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 images of four burnt-out Mi-24 helicopters believed to belong to the Russian army. The Russian Defense Ministry denied this information.

During the Russian 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, accompanied by a convoy of cars with food for local residents. An improvised explosive device exploded near the car where he was.

The Russian coordination center for the reconciliation of the 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

In the Syrian province of Idlib on Monday, August 1, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was shot down. Five military men were on board: three crew members and two officers, Interfax was told in the press service and information department of the Russian Defense Ministry. They all died. The head of the Main Operational 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 Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group (banned in the Russian Federation).

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

"There were three crew members and two officers of the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria on board the helicopter," the Russian military department said.

The Ministry of Defense said that they are 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, which was shot down from the ground,” Peskov said. “Everyone who was in the helicopter, as far as we know, died. They died heroically, because 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 dead servicemen, RBC reports.

Meanwhile, Shahba Press, which is close to the opposition, reports only four dead, writes The Wall Street Journal.

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

August 1, 2016

One of the photographs shows how the militants are dragging the body along the ground - presumably one of the soldiers who were 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.