Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. See the link for maps and photos
Text taken from Commissioner Yarrick post
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics
First Palmyra. Bride of the Desert. Part No. 2
The Path to the East
As we remember from previous articles, in the very first days of the Russian operation in the SAR, together with the air group of the Russian Aerospace Forces and the “Syrian Express”, a group of Russian volunteers and military veterans under the command of Dmitry Utkin (“Wagner”, “Ninth”), which was supposed to support the actions of the Syrian army, as well as ensure the implementation of the most complex and dangerous operations. The first meeting of the “musicians” with Syrian militants was the battles in Northern Latakia in the fall of 2015: it was the fighters of the “orchestra” who were in the vanguard of the Syrian troops clearing the approaches to the Russian Khmeimim airbase. Then, with the direct participation and activity of Russian attack aircraft, the fighters of the Syrian army for the first time managed to show a phenomenal result - move from positional warfare to an offensive, shift the front in the mountainous regions of Latakia and divert any threat from the Russian airbase.
Over the next few months, the fighters of the Wagner Group were transferred to the Palmyra area, where they received a new task. The Orchestra fighters had to begin advancing along the route, while the Syrian army was churning the mud near Mkhin and Khavarin, cutting a road directly to Palmyra - but so far without storming the city itself. Having accepted the task, in parallel with the advance of the Syrian army near Jebel al-Hazm, supported by attacks from Russian cruise missiles, the “musicians” began an assault on the eastern slopes of the Jebel Khayal mountains, captured several points and advanced east towards Palmyra.
As the GRAY ZONE Telegram channel notes, by this time the Wagner Group had been completed with new fighters from the assault squads. The total number of the “Orchestra” in Syria by this time reached almost 2.5 thousand people. Since the Palmyra operation already required specialized military equipment, units of heavy armored vehicles, as well as pickup trucks with installed large-caliber weapons, were transferred to the balance of the Wagner Group through the mediation of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Some equipment was captured from the militants, some weapons were transferred to Russian fighters from Syrian units. As a result, by the winter of 2015/16, the Wagner Group was armed with several infantry fighting vehicles, T-90, T-72 and T-62 tanks, armored vehicles, recoilless rifles, ATGMs, numerous variations of Kalashnikov assault rifles (from Russian manufacturers to low-quality Chinese "Samsungs") and even foreign sniper rifles (in particular, Austrian Steyr-Mannlicher).
From the book “Eight Years with Wagner” by Kirill Romanovsky (AST, Leninigrad, 2024)
“We walked through the mountains, along the mountain ridge to the junction. There the road led to Iraq. In principle, from this height we controlled the ridge, but it was difficult to deliver artillery there and, due to the complexity of the terrain, there were problems with the delivery of food. It was both mentally difficult and physically difficult, plus the business trip was long and there were a lot of fights. And if before that I went without losses, then here I already lost my guys.
First, the “Fatimids” disappeared - as if they had disappeared into the ground, although at first everyone said: “Rus, Rus, we are with you everywhere.” And then, just like that, they disappeared. I gave the command to the Syrians so that they, too, began to carry out an offensive - we had all already reached our positions and by time we should have already begun actions. But when I went to the center, I found myself alone with my group. The whole trio - Syrians, Russians and "Fatimids" - were supposed to separate the militants into small groups, and then, in principle, we would quickly, quickly knock them out of there. But we were left alone - and it turned out that for the enemy we were like in a shooting gallery. They concentrated all their fire on us.
As we later found out, the forces of some Indonesians were concentrated there against us. At the same time, there were crests there, which is the most interesting thing. How did we determine? They had our camouflages and “dots,” that is, “assholes,” but in the SAR no one uses “assholes.”
After a series of fierce battles with ISIS, the Wagner Group fighters occupied the area of marble quarries, gained a foothold in the mountainous region of Jebel al-Mazar and entered the village of Ad-Dawa, two kilometers west of Palmyra. On November 23, Russian assault troops also took control of the Al-Qadri farms and reached the Jebel Hayyan ridge, coming very close to the “Palmyra Triangle” - the intersection of key routes at the western entrance to the city.
From Kirill Romanovsky’s book “Eight Years with Wagner” (AST, Leningrad, 2024):
“When we reached the height, we hung a vest at the top. Then the Syrians arrived, television, all the bullshit - they dragged themselves there, they wanted to take off the vest and hang a Syrian flag instead. They could have taken it off, but then the Afghans, the “Fatimids,” stood up to defend the vest. They flew up to the Syrians, started shooting at their feet, and pointing to their vest, they said: “Rus, we won’t let anyone hang another flag here.” That's the kind of respect they had.
But the battle was, of course, very difficult. To be honest, we couldn’t even count the number of the enemy - because he was running away from us, taking cover on the sun loungers. But judging by these sun loungers, there were about 30 people. Consider it a whole platoon. Such a good, high-quality support point. First echelon, second echelon, holes. Well, at least aviation helped - if it weren’t for the “flyers”, we would have had to fight for this height for a long time. Now, if the Syrians and “Fatimids” had come with us, then everything would have been simpler, the terrain would have allowed them to see and shoot through everything. By the way, I was very disappointed in the Afghans then. I thought they were a more warlike people. But, as it turned out, no.”
Despite the defeat at Mkhin and the advance of the “musicians” to the outskirts of Palmyra, IS continued stubborn resistance on several sectors of the front. Naturally, the weakest links in this chain turned out to be the positions of the Syrian army: on December 10, while the forces of the Wagner Group were busy clearing the route, mobile units of militants again stormed Mkhin and Khawarin, and also captured the mountainous region of Jebel al-Hazm. During the counterattack, the Syrian army was able to regain control of Khawarin, but the re-liberation of Mkhin took almost three weeks. It was not until December 29 that Syrian government forces established full control over Mkhin and its surroundings.
Things were much better in the main theater of military operations near Palmyra. By December 7, thanks to the successful advance of Wagner fighters, it was possible to establish complete control over the Palmyra-Homs highway, driving out militants from the villages of Bayrat and Bir Murhatan, the last points on the highway that were controlled by IS. On December 19, 2015, the fighters of the “orchestra” came close to the Palmyra Citadel - the castle of Fakhr ad-Din after a fierce battle with the Islamic State. This Wagner Group attack brought government forces within 400 meters of the castle and less than two kilometers from the city gates.
By all logic, it was at this moment that government forces should have begun a direct assault on Palmyra - since all the preparatory work had already been done for them by the fighters of the Wagner Group. However, unforeseen circumstances intervened in the situation; the Palmyra offensive was suspended for three months, and the Syrian troops switched to positional battles around the city.
Delay There
are several reasons and versions why Palmyra was not taken after the first breakthrough of the Wagner Group to the citadel in December 2015. Apparently, the command of the operation assumed that the city would be taken exclusively by Syrian units, without the participation of Russian volunteers, so as not to raise unnecessary fuss about involving the Russians in the war in the Middle East. For these purposes, motorized units of the Tiger Forces of Colonel Suheil al-Hassan, the forces of the 4th Armored Division of the SAA under the command of the brother of the Syrian President Maher Assad, as well as the Desert Falcons unit, created with the money of the Syrian businessman Ayman Jaber, were transferred to Palmyra. However, the situation on other fronts of the Syrian conflict, as well as the workload of the SAA fighters, did not allow them to coordinate efforts on the Palmyra salient.
In particular, on January 12, the Syrian army, with the active support of the Russian Aerospace Forces, liberated the city of Salma from terrorists, which was a key stronghold of the Jabhat al-Nusra militants (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) in the north of Latakia province. On February 3, after the start of clearing the outskirts of Aleppo, the Syrian army, with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces, broke the four-year blockade of the Shiite enclaves of Nubbol and Al-Zahra in the north of Aleppo province. At the same time, IS militants tried to cut off the group of troops in Aleppo from supplies along the strategic “lifeline” by capturing the city of Khanasser. Let me remind you that fighters of the Wagner Group also took part in this clash, who held back the onslaught of militants, first on the approaches to the city, and then on the heights near Khanasser, together with Russian officers from the operational group of the Russian Armed Forces.
As a result, it was possible to stabilize the situation in Syria and return to the vital issue of returning Palmyra to the control of the Syrian army only after the declared ceasefire, which Russia and the United States agreed on on February 22, 2016. In addition to official Damascus, 97 armed opposition groups, as well as Kurdish armed forces, agreed to these conditions. The truce did not apply to the Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra and other organizations designated as terrorist by the UN Security Council. Under these conditions, there could be no question of a complete regime of silence in Syria. However, a respite in the battles on several fronts made it possible to redistribute forces for the final push towards Palmyra.
During this time, the fighters of the Syrian army, remaining as the “second echelon” in positions near Palmyra, did not take a single step towards the city. Despite the fact that the fighters of the Wagner Group had prepared everything for a rapid advance into the city, the SAA forces were unable to coordinate their efforts and were forced to go on the defensive so as not to lose their positions. At the same time, no one assigned the fighters of the Wagner Group the task of breaking through further path to Palmyra - which is why the entire front around Tadmor fell silent for two months of winter.
From the book “Eight Years with Wagner” by Kirill Romanovsky (AST, Leningrad, 2024):
“It was very cold then, the guys had frostbite before the amputation. Someone's fingers were cut off. The newly arrived soldiers, who had just been recruited, were given “slides” - and there the frosts were from zero to good minus, and the wind was crazy. And this is Palmyra, the heights have already risen - and frostbite has begun. Everything is serious there: you live on the street, there are no tents, there was nothing like that. You lay down the foam and you sleep, and then you catch your kidneys. And you look at the Syrians - they brought a tent, they brought a stove, a bunch of blankets, a bunch of mattresses. The platoon leader and I look at it like this - but we just live on the street, sleep on rocks, the cold is terrible. I was lucky, I was lucky, I also had a fashionable Austrian sleeping bag - it was an amazing save. This is what the company provided at the beginning. And we go straight to the Syrians - can we sleep with you? Well, at least they have a tent and a stove, it’s absolutely amazing. Just when active hostilities entered a slow phase, we spent the night with them for a couple of serious, frosty nights.”
But the militants of the “Islamic State” have more than benefited from the current situation. Realizing that the Syrian army had the first access to Palmyra, the forces of the self-proclaimed “caliphate” threw significant resources at the walls of Tadmor, including experienced fighters from Iraq and other countries. As a result, when a new stage of the battle for Palmyra began in March 2016, the moment of surprise due to the forced downtime was partially lost: the enemy prepared to repel the attack and waited for the attack.
Through thorns...
On March 9, 2016, massive airstrikes by the Russian Aerospace Forces began against the Palmyra area, as well as along the Islamic State’s supply routes from Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. By March 10, IS losses had grown to 32 militants: according to terrorist statistics, 80 air strikes and up to 200 missile and artillery strikes were carried out. After a massive artillery barrage, the command of the Syrian army announced the start of the assault on Palmyra. It was then reported that the key task for the army was to encircle the city to interrupt Islamist communications - and to occupy the powerful defensive system of fortifications built by IS forces along the perimeter of Palmyra.
The only thing that was not indicated in the media then was who would actually get the keys to Palmyra in battle.
On March 12, fighters of the Wagner Group began fighting for the village of Ad-Dawa, two kilometers west of Palmyra. By March 13, strategic heights were taken under control, which made it possible to open the terrorists’ defenses and advance to the city limits. One of the control points was El Barda (“Height 800” and “Height 853”) - two peaks in the Jebel Hayyan mountain range, which covered the southwestern entrance to the city.
El Barda.
From the book “Eight Years with Wagner” by Kirill Romanovsky (AST, Leningrad, 2024):
“El Barda is two heights. On one side stood the “Carpathians”, and the railway ran in the middle. They called her "Neck". They also wanted to roll a train along it, mine it and launch it towards the spirits. Nearby there was a ridge leading to Palmyra.
It was an interesting fight, but we had a good laugh then. Then the weapons were good, the equipment was supplied. We went to a height on the left flank, the commander of the soldiers standing there told us: “You sit for now, there is still spirit activity there.” We went out, secured a foothold, sat at night, and then my observers reported: “Spirits!” I command “For battle”, everyone went to their positions. The spirits pulled out the DShK, t-r-r-r-r-r in the air, fired - apparently they thought that the Syrians were standing on the high-rise, and just the sounds of the DShK would make them crap their pants.
They walk in tens of them - satisfied, happy: they say the Syrians will leave now, and they will take a position. And we have night vision devices. Plus, one of ours had the Pierce system, it helps the night devices, like the moon - you turn it on and the night devices see well. True, the enemy also sees you well, if he has “night lights”, you can light up. So, the guy turns on “Pierce” - and everyone in the “night lights” sees the territory as during the day. Well, we sat down and, as if at a shooting gallery, started clicking them. We then killed three spirits, the rest literally immediately evaporated.”
It was in this place that the tragic events of March 13, 2016 took place, when the members of the “orchestra” suddenly found themselves under attack from Russian aviation. While firing at the positions of Islamic State militants, an airstrike was carried out with four air bombs from a Su-25 of the Russian Aerospace Forces at the point of temporary deployment of Wagner Group fighters at the heights of El Bard. As a result of the incident, the 4th reconnaissance and assault company of the Wagner PMC, led by Andrei Bogatov (call sign “Brodyaga”), came under attack.
Two fighters died on the spot - “Memphis” and “Cascade”; another fighter with the call sign “Moskvich” subsequently died in a Syrian hospital. “Tramp” himself was seriously wounded - as a result of an explosion of an aerial bomb, Bogatov lost his arm, but subsequently he continued his activities as commander of the “Orchestra”.
For a long time, a semi-official version of the incident near El Barda circulated on the Internet. According to it, the pilot saw a black pirate flag with the Jolly Roger flying over the camp and mistook it for the flag of the Islamic State. According to another version of events, the coordinates of the strike were received by the pilot at the flight control center - however, history is silent about why the MCC did not note that at the indicated point it was not ISIS militants, but “Tramp” and fighters of the 4th SHO.
Kirill Romanovsky, military correspondent for the Federal News Agency:
“The Su-24 aircraft actually “unloaded” four FAB-500s at the position of the Wagner PMC. The coordinates of the temporary deployment point of 4 SHO were entered into the target log... After this incident, the Tramp, having lost one arm, climbed the mountains for three days and pulled out his fighters. There were many wounded, several people died.”
Military correspondent Stepan Yatsko and Hero of Russia Andrei Bogatov.
Following the incident near El Barda, another tragic situation occurred in the ranks of the “orchestra”. Moving along the Jebel Hayyan ridge, the fighters of the 1st assault detachment of the Wagner PMC under the command of Alexander Kuznetsov (call sign “Ratibor”) had to prepare for the assault on the next point of control - the legendary “Height 939”, which actually opened fire control over the road junction at the southwestern entrance to Palmyra, the so-called “Palmyra triangle”. However, on March 16, 2016, in area 939, three Wagner Group fighters were killed during a violent clash with IS militants. Due to the density of fire, it was not possible to remove the bodies of the dead from the battlefield - on the same day, the resources of the “Islamic State” published photographs of one of the dead volunteers, Ivan Sumkin (call sign “Varyag”).
In the same battle, as reported by the GRAY ZONE Telegram channel, an unknown Orchestra fighter with the call sign "Altai" died, as well as a legendary personality - one of the most experienced sappers of the 1st SHO "Ratibor" Evgeniy "Bertolet", who came to " Wagner Group" in 2015. According to participants in the events, a group of fighters set out to carry out mining, but the enemy managed to cut them off from their retreat routes. Subsequently, the story of the death of “Bertolet” became overgrown with legends, since the bodies of the dead could not be pulled out from the battlefield.
Telegram channel GRAY ZONE:
“The patrol missed the flash and the enemy pulled them into a fire bag. After the battle, there were many legends, rumors and gossip. Those who missed the flash said that Bertolet himself went to the spirits and is now teaching them his skills. The version that the participants told is a little closer to reality - he was wounded or stunned, after which he lost consciousness. And only when the group was leaving did they see that Bertolet was being dragged away by the spirits to their side.”
Another tragic incident around Palmyra - which, unlike the tragedy near El Barda and the death of three “musicians”, became known almost immediately - occurred on March 17, 2016. On this day, Islamist forces, taking advantage of a sandstorm, launched a counterattack in the Jebel Hayyan mountains southwest of Palmyra, trying to push back the advancing “orchestra” troops from Hill 939. In response to the intensification of IS operations, government forces were deployed near Palmyra as reinforcements Syrian marines from the province of Latakia and units of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.
Alexander Prokhorenko.
The attack was repelled, but on the same day, near Palmyra, while carrying out the task of directing airstrikes against the most important ISIS targets, a serviceman of the Russian Special Operations Forces, senior lieutenant Alexander Prokhorenko, was killed. Finding himself surrounded by militants, the soldier called fire on himself.
For the courage and heroism shown in the performance of military duty, Senior Lieutenant Prokhorenko was awarded the title of Hero of Russia (posthumously). Due to the current situation during the battle, Prokhorenko’s body could not be taken away immediately - later, after the battle, in the morning, ISIS militants would publish videos and photos from the scene of his death. In the future, Prokhorenko’s body will be returned to his homeland through negotiations and ransom through the mediation of Kurdish forces.
By the way, the place of death of Alexander Prokhorenko was only a few hundred meters from the death of Varyag, Bertolet and Altai a day earlier...
Keys to Palmyra
By March 18, full-scale military operations had already unfolded directly under the walls of Palmyra. After taking the heights of Jebel al-Mattar, the fighters of the Wagner Group went along the heights and occupied two key positions in the area of the Ancient Palmyra aqueduct. The next few days in the Palmyra direction were marked by positional battles and cleansing. In parallel with the actions of the “musicians” on the ground, Russian strike aviation provided support to the attackers: according to the statement of the Chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Sergei Rudsky, the Russian Aerospace Forces forces carried out up to 25 sorties per day during these days.
The work of the “orchestra” fighters on the heights around Palmyra brought its successes: on March 22, the former villa of the Qatari Sheikh Tamim ibn Hamid, located in the center of the “Palmyra Triangle” road junction, was occupied. During the 10 months of occupation, IS militants converted the former possessions of the sheikh into a training base and a powerful fortified area. The capture of the “Qatari villa” predetermined the outcome of the battles for the “triangle”: after the Jebel Hayyan ridge was completely cleared of militants, the fighters of the “orchestra” were able to get close to the “Gardens of Palmyra” - an oasis in the desert, where several thousand years of cultivation had taken place. dozens of generations of city residents.
The first assault on Palmyra was officially launched on March 24, 2016. On this day, as reported in the media, Syrian troops came very close to the historical part of Palmyra - although, in reality, the Syrian army only got close to the Palmyra necropolis. But the fighters of the Wagner PMC, continuing the cleanup before the final push on Palmyra, completely occupied the ancient quarries of Palmyra. The battle for the area of the old marble quarries began during the advance to 939, but after clearing the ridge, the militants could no longer hold this area and were forced to retreat to Palmyra.
From the book by Kirill Romanovsky “Eight Years with Wagner” (AST, Leningrad, 2024):
“I remember my first fight. It was a good fight. 939 had a task when we entered the quarry. Before this, I had never been in a serious battle, when you directly see the enemy. Before that, the Caucasus, all this, but everything was a little different there. And in this fight - yes, direct contact.
We found the spirits - they were just praying, and that’s why they fucked us up. We approached - on the right there was 939, a quarry, and we were hanging around there because there was no clear task. There was another unit to our right. We went to the left, there’s a “boob” about 300-400 meters away - and there’s a parapet on it.
There were guys next to me that I looked at and that was it. Yes, at first, of course, there was a moment, I was with a machine gun, at first there was a slight stupor, as if they had fallen onto the parapet. I also found a radar gun at the very beginning of the battle. This comrade who later ran away from a grenade. So what - the fight started, I worked, I looked - I fell and that’s it. Then it was already flooded.”
IS militants, who set up a layered defense on the outskirts and in the center of the city, tried to delay the advance of groups of “musicians” in certain areas in order to tie the fighters into dense urban battles. The main firing points of the terrorists were former hotels converted into bunkers - in particular, Semiramis and Didiman in the southwest of Palmyra. These two hotels attempted to block passage from the Palmyra Gardens after the capture of Az Ziraa.
Another direction of attack was Mount Jebel Kasyoun and the citadel of Palmyra located on it - the medieval castle of Fakhr ad-Din. After the fighters of the “orchestra” managed to completely clear the mountainous region of Jebel al-Mattar, which covered the castle on the western side, on March 25, the fighters of the “Wagner Group” began an assault on the citadel. The first strike established control over the communications tower and Al-Mantar peak. These two points became the last strongholds of ISIS on the way to Jebel Kasyoun: by evening, the citadel, which is the control point of the entire Palmyra oasis, came under the control of Russian volunteers.
The flag of the Islamic State, which had flown for 10 months over the Fakhr ad-Din castle, was handed over to Syrian units - and the soldiers of the Tiger Forces of Colonel Suheil al-Hassan demonstratively burned it.
Already on March 26, it became clear: IS is rapidly losing control of Palmyra. The capture of height 939 by the Ratibor detachment predetermined the complete defeat of the militants under the walls of Tadmor: realizing that they could not hold the city, the militants turned around and hastily began to leave Palmyra. At this moment, the defeat was completed by the attack of the 1st SHO of the Wagner PMC, which began an assault on the Tadmor airport, which the militants had turned into a major defense hub. Attacks by Russian volunteers and the intensive work of the Russian Aerospace Forces, which during these days carried out up to 40 sorties per day, forced the IS forces to retreat from the city. On March 27, the Syrian Central Command announced the complete liberation of Palmyra.
At this moment, the Syrian army, following the mysterious fighters from the Wagner Group, occupied Palmyra and its archaeological complex. And on March 28, in the center of Palmyra at 15:00 local time, the state flag of the Syrian Arab Republic was raised again.
“By the competent decision of the commander and the coordinated actions of our employees, the ancient city was liberated by the end of March 2016. This operation was carried out exclusively by soldiers of the Wagner PMC. We cannot remain silent about our fallen comrades during the liberation of the ancient city. But as a result, the role of the Wagner PMC in the fight against terrorism was hidden from the public. Our unit did not pursue fame, awards and “copper pipes”, but simply fulfilled the assigned tasks with honor and dignity by the leadership of our Country and the management of our company.”
“Musicians with machine guns”
The liberation of Palmyra after 10 months of occupation by IS militants was the first truly key event in the Syrian conflict. Thanks to the help of the Wagner PMC fighters, as well as the close work of the Russian Aerospace Forces and Special Operations Forces, the Syrian army was able to regain control of an important strategic hub in the central part of the country. In addition, this victory marked the gradual liberation of Syria from the yoke of an international terrorist group: after Palmyra, fierce battles began for El-Qaryatein, and by April 3, the city was completely liberated.
However, the IS militants, despite the defeat, retained a powerful offensive potential. First of all, this concerned the situation in the Palmyra area: despite the liberation, several problems remained unresolved after the capture of the city and it was not possible to create a full-fledged “security zone” around Palmyra. Under these conditions, Islamic State militants repeatedly carried out raids against Syrian troops on gas fields northwest of Palmyra and near the eastern border of the city - in the area of the destroyed grain elevator. Finally, it was the continued instability in the Palmyra salient that predetermined the events in December 2016, when IS forces launched a new large-scale offensive on Palmyra.
Symphony orchestra concert in Palmyra
But all this will happen later. In the meantime, a symphony orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev played in the ancient amphitheater of Palmyra. And few of those who watched the concert in the heart of the Syrian desert knew that very close by were “musicians” of a completely different kind. By the way, it was then that the nickname “musicians” was assigned to the Wagner PMC, just as the PMC prefix itself, which was born in the publications of the liberal press, was firmly attached to the fighters of the battalion tactical group. The nickname “Orchestra” will finally take shape in December 2016 - when Palmyra is again captured by ISIS militants, and journalists will write about how Wagner fighters stormed Palmyra for the first time:
“After the liberation of Palmyra, the Russian Ministry of Defense held a concert in the ancient amphitheater of the city. They played Prokofiev's music. It is quite possible that musicians may appear in this city again. Only these will be “musicians” with machine guns - a ghostly “Wagner group.”
Ahead of the Wagner PMC will be a difficult return to Russia, a new business trip to Palmyra with the goal of the final liberation of the city and the return of light to the homes of ordinary Syrian citizens. We have already talked about this on the pages of our chronicle, but there is still something to be said.
In the meantime...
From Kirill Romanovsky’s book “Eight Years with Wagner” (AST, Leningrad, 2024):
“Heroism is such a strange concept - it’s an adrenaline rush in a person. After all, all this happens under the influence of drugs that our body produces, hormones. And all this heroism... yes, the guys are great, sometimes they show such things that you are shocked, but this is all under the influence of hormones, and not the human factor.
I remember I once observed near Palmyra, from a distance of 800 meters I looked through the optics. Our first unit was moving, Detachment No. 1. I don’t know who it was, but I see: a guy runs into a trench, throws a grenade, makes a long burst there, jumps into the trench, and immediately jumps out of it. There's an explosion behind him - that's right, someone threw a grenade at him - and he shoots again, into the enemy trench, and only then climbs back in, and gets lost in the ISIS trenches. It was just like in the movies, in action films. I don’t know who this is, but the action is awesome. You only see this in action movies.”
It was in this place that the tragic events of March 13, 2016 took place, when the members of the “orchestra” suddenly found themselves under attack from Russian aviation. While firing at the positions of Islamic State militants, an airstrike was carried out with four air bombs from a Su-25 of the Russian Aerospace Forces at the point of temporary deployment of Wagner Group fighters at the heights of El Bard. As a result of the incident, the 4th reconnaissance and assault company of the Wagner PMC, led by Andrei Bogatov (call sign “Brodyaga”), came under attack.
Two fighters died on the spot - “Memphis” and “Cascade”; another fighter with the call sign “Moskvich” subsequently died in a Syrian hospital. “Tramp” himself was seriously wounded - as a result of an explosion of an aerial bomb, Bogatov lost his arm, but subsequently he continued his activities as commander of the “Orchestra”.
For a long time, a semi-official version of the incident near El Barda circulated on the Internet. According to it, the pilot saw a black pirate flag with the Jolly Roger flying over the camp and mistook it for the flag of the Islamic State. According to another version of events, the coordinates of the strike were received by the pilot at the flight control center - however, history is silent about why the MCC did not note that at the indicated point it was not ISIS militants, but “Tramp” and fighters of the 4th SHO.
Kirill Romanovsky, military correspondent for the Federal News Agency:
“The Su-24 aircraft actually “unloaded” four FAB-500s at the position of the Wagner PMC. The coordinates of the temporary deployment point of 4 SHO were entered into the target log... After this incident, the Tramp, having lost one arm, climbed the mountains for three days and pulled out his fighters. There were many wounded, several people died.”
Military correspondent Stepan Yatsko and Hero of Russia Andrei Bogatov.
Following the incident near El Barda, another tragic situation occurred in the ranks of the “orchestra”. Moving along the Jebel Hayyan ridge, the fighters of the 1st assault detachment of the Wagner PMC under the command of Alexander Kuznetsov (call sign “Ratibor”) had to prepare for the assault on the next point of control - the legendary “Height 939”, which actually opened fire control over the road junction at the southwestern entrance to Palmyra, the so-called “Palmyra triangle”. However, on March 16, 2016, in area 939, three Wagner Group fighters were killed during a violent clash with IS militants. Due to the density of fire, it was not possible to remove the bodies of the dead from the battlefield - on the same day, the resources of the “Islamic State” published photographs of one of the dead volunteers, Ivan Sumkin (call sign “Varyag”).
In the same battle, as reported by the GRAY ZONE Telegram channel, an unknown Orchestra fighter with the call sign "Altai" died, as well as a legendary personality - one of the most experienced sappers of the 1st SHO "Ratibor" Evgeniy "Bertolet", who came to " Wagner Group" in 2015. According to participants in the events, a group of fighters set out to carry out mining, but the enemy managed to cut them off from their retreat routes. Subsequently, the story of the death of “Bertolet” became overgrown with legends, since the bodies of the dead could not be pulled out from the battlefield.
Telegram channel GRAY ZONE:
“The patrol missed the flash and the enemy pulled them into a fire bag. After the battle, there were many legends, rumors and gossip. Those who missed the flash said that Bertolet himself went to the spirits and is now teaching them his skills. The version that the participants told is a little closer to reality - he was wounded or stunned, after which he lost consciousness. And only when the group was leaving did they see that Bertolet was being dragged away by the spirits to their side.”
Another tragic incident around Palmyra - which, unlike the tragedy near El Barda and the death of three “musicians”, became known almost immediately - occurred on March 17, 2016. On this day, Islamist forces, taking advantage of a sandstorm, launched a counterattack in the Jebel Hayyan mountains southwest of Palmyra, trying to push back the advancing “orchestra” troops from Hill 939. In response to the intensification of IS operations, government forces were deployed near Palmyra as reinforcements Syrian marines from the province of Latakia and units of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.
Alexander Prokhorenko.
The attack was repelled, but on the same day, near Palmyra, while carrying out the task of directing airstrikes against the most important ISIS targets, a serviceman of the Russian Special Operations Forces, senior lieutenant Alexander Prokhorenko, was killed. Finding himself surrounded by militants, the soldier called fire on himself.
For the courage and heroism shown in the performance of military duty, Senior Lieutenant Prokhorenko was awarded the title of Hero of Russia (posthumously). Due to the current situation during the battle, Prokhorenko’s body could not be taken away immediately - later, after the battle, in the morning, ISIS militants would publish videos and photos from the scene of his death. In the future, Prokhorenko’s body will be returned to his homeland through negotiations and ransom through the mediation of Kurdish forces.
By the way, the place of death of Alexander Prokhorenko was only a few hundred meters from the death of Varyag, Bertolet and Altai a day earlier...
Keys to Palmyra
By March 18, full-scale military operations had already unfolded directly under the walls of Palmyra. After taking the heights of Jebel al-Mattar, the fighters of the Wagner Group went along the heights and occupied two key positions in the area of the Ancient Palmyra aqueduct. The next few days in the Palmyra direction were marked by positional battles and cleansing. In parallel with the actions of the “musicians” on the ground, Russian strike aviation provided support to the attackers: according to the statement of the Chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Sergei Rudsky, the Russian Aerospace Forces forces carried out up to 25 sorties per day during these days.
The work of the “orchestra” fighters on the heights around Palmyra brought its successes: on March 22, the former villa of the Qatari Sheikh Tamim ibn Hamid, located in the center of the “Palmyra Triangle” road junction, was occupied. During the 10 months of occupation, IS militants converted the former possessions of the sheikh into a training base and a powerful fortified area. The capture of the “Qatari villa” predetermined the outcome of the battles for the “triangle”: after the Jebel Hayyan ridge was completely cleared of militants, the fighters of the “orchestra” were able to get close to the “Gardens of Palmyra” - an oasis in the desert, where several thousand years of cultivation had taken place. dozens of generations of city residents.
The first assault on Palmyra was officially launched on March 24, 2016. On this day, as reported in the media, Syrian troops came very close to the historical part of Palmyra - although, in reality, the Syrian army only got close to the Palmyra necropolis. But the fighters of the Wagner PMC, continuing the cleanup before the final push on Palmyra, completely occupied the ancient quarries of Palmyra. The battle for the area of the old marble quarries began during the advance to 939, but after clearing the ridge, the militants could no longer hold this area and were forced to retreat to Palmyra.
From the book by Kirill Romanovsky “Eight Years with Wagner” (AST, Leningrad, 2024):
“I remember my first fight. It was a good fight. 939 had a task when we entered the quarry. Before this, I had never been in a serious battle, when you directly see the enemy. Before that, the Caucasus, all this, but everything was a little different there. And in this fight - yes, direct contact.
We found the spirits - they were just praying, and that’s why they fucked us up. We approached - on the right there was 939, a quarry, and we were hanging around there because there was no clear task. There was another unit to our right. We went to the left, there’s a “boob” about 300-400 meters away - and there’s a parapet on it.
There were guys next to me that I looked at and that was it. Yes, at first, of course, there was a moment, I was with a machine gun, at first there was a slight stupor, as if they had fallen onto the parapet. I also found a radar gun at the very beginning of the battle. This comrade who later ran away from a grenade. So what - the fight started, I worked, I looked - I fell and that’s it. Then it was already flooded.”
IS militants, who set up a layered defense on the outskirts and in the center of the city, tried to delay the advance of groups of “musicians” in certain areas in order to tie the fighters into dense urban battles. The main firing points of the terrorists were former hotels converted into bunkers - in particular, Semiramis and Didiman in the southwest of Palmyra. These two hotels attempted to block passage from the Palmyra Gardens after the capture of Az Ziraa.
Another direction of attack was Mount Jebel Kasyoun and the citadel of Palmyra located on it - the medieval castle of Fakhr ad-Din. After the fighters of the “orchestra” managed to completely clear the mountainous region of Jebel al-Mattar, which covered the castle on the western side, on March 25, the fighters of the “Wagner Group” began an assault on the citadel. The first strike established control over the communications tower and Al-Mantar peak. These two points became the last strongholds of ISIS on the way to Jebel Kasyoun: by evening, the citadel, which is the control point of the entire Palmyra oasis, came under the control of Russian volunteers.
The flag of the Islamic State, which had flown for 10 months over the Fakhr ad-Din castle, was handed over to Syrian units - and the soldiers of the Tiger Forces of Colonel Suheil al-Hassan demonstratively burned it.
Already on March 26, it became clear: IS is rapidly losing control of Palmyra. The capture of height 939 by the Ratibor detachment predetermined the complete defeat of the militants under the walls of Tadmor: realizing that they could not hold the city, the militants turned around and hastily began to leave Palmyra. At this moment, the defeat was completed by the attack of the 1st SHO of the Wagner PMC, which began an assault on the Tadmor airport, which the militants had turned into a major defense hub. Attacks by Russian volunteers and the intensive work of the Russian Aerospace Forces, which during these days carried out up to 40 sorties per day, forced the IS forces to retreat from the city. On March 27, the Syrian Central Command announced the complete liberation of Palmyra.
At this moment, the Syrian army, following the mysterious fighters from the Wagner Group, occupied Palmyra and its archaeological complex. And on March 28, in the center of Palmyra at 15:00 local time, the state flag of the Syrian Arab Republic was raised again.
“By the competent decision of the commander and the coordinated actions of our employees, the ancient city was liberated by the end of March 2016. This operation was carried out exclusively by soldiers of the Wagner PMC. We cannot remain silent about our fallen comrades during the liberation of the ancient city. But as a result, the role of the Wagner PMC in the fight against terrorism was hidden from the public. Our unit did not pursue fame, awards and “copper pipes”, but simply fulfilled the assigned tasks with honor and dignity by the leadership of our Country and the management of our company.”
“Musicians with machine guns”
The liberation of Palmyra after 10 months of occupation by IS militants was the first truly key event in the Syrian conflict. Thanks to the help of the Wagner PMC fighters, as well as the close work of the Russian Aerospace Forces and Special Operations Forces, the Syrian army was able to regain control of an important strategic hub in the central part of the country. In addition, this victory marked the gradual liberation of Syria from the yoke of an international terrorist group: after Palmyra, fierce battles began for El-Qaryatein, and by April 3, the city was completely liberated.
However, the IS militants, despite the defeat, retained a powerful offensive potential. First of all, this concerned the situation in the Palmyra area: despite the liberation, several problems remained unresolved after the capture of the city and it was not possible to create a full-fledged “security zone” around Palmyra. Under these conditions, Islamic State militants repeatedly carried out raids against Syrian troops on gas fields northwest of Palmyra and near the eastern border of the city - in the area of the destroyed grain elevator. Finally, it was the continued instability in the Palmyra salient that predetermined the events in December 2016, when IS forces launched a new large-scale offensive on Palmyra.
Symphony orchestra concert in Palmyra
But all this will happen later. In the meantime, a symphony orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev played in the ancient amphitheater of Palmyra. And few of those who watched the concert in the heart of the Syrian desert knew that very close by were “musicians” of a completely different kind. By the way, it was then that the nickname “musicians” was assigned to the Wagner PMC, just as the PMC prefix itself, which was born in the publications of the liberal press, was firmly attached to the fighters of the battalion tactical group. The nickname “Orchestra” will finally take shape in December 2016 - when Palmyra is again captured by ISIS militants, and journalists will write about how Wagner fighters stormed Palmyra for the first time:
“After the liberation of Palmyra, the Russian Ministry of Defense held a concert in the ancient amphitheater of the city. They played Prokofiev's music. It is quite possible that musicians may appear in this city again. Only these will be “musicians” with machine guns - a ghostly “Wagner group.”
Ahead of the Wagner PMC will be a difficult return to Russia, a new business trip to Palmyra with the goal of the final liberation of the city and the return of light to the homes of ordinary Syrian citizens. We have already talked about this on the pages of our chronicle, but there is still something to be said.
In the meantime...
From Kirill Romanovsky’s book “Eight Years with Wagner” (AST, Leningrad, 2024):
“Heroism is such a strange concept - it’s an adrenaline rush in a person. After all, all this happens under the influence of drugs that our body produces, hormones. And all this heroism... yes, the guys are great, sometimes they show such things that you are shocked, but this is all under the influence of hormones, and not the human factor.
I remember I once observed near Palmyra, from a distance of 800 meters I looked through the optics. Our first unit was moving, Detachment No. 1. I don’t know who it was, but I see: a guy runs into a trench, throws a grenade, makes a long burst there, jumps into the trench, and immediately jumps out of it. There's an explosion behind him - that's right, someone threw a grenade at him - and he shoots again, into the enemy trench, and only then climbs back in, and gets lost in the ISIS trenches. It was just like in the movies, in action films. I don’t know who this is, but the action is awesome. You only see this in action movies.”
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