Russia Lost More Than 500 Military Personnel in Syria, Many from Elite Units

After accessing a variety of open-source, social media and leaked documents as well as memorials and gravestones, the BBC identified 543 Russian military personnel and Wagner PMC mercenaries killed in Syria between 2015 and 2024. The list included members of elite special forces groups of the regular army, FSB, and GRU intelligence units and military pilots.

At the height of Russian military operations, the Kremlin claimed that 63,000 military personnel had been deployed to Syria.

Company documentation from the Wagner private military company (PMC) revealed that 346 of its personnel died in Syria between 2016 and 2022. This included the loss of 80 mercenaries in a single incident on Feb. 17, 2018. Kurdish opposition forces, who were under attack by a large number of the PMC group, called in air and artillery strikes from their US ally that killed 67 Wagnerites on the spot with a further 13 later dying from their wounds.

Figures compiled by the BBC identified that Russian regular military personnel killed in Syria included one major general, 10 colonels, 15 lieutenant colonels, 31 majors, and another 61 officers with the rank of lieutenant to captain.

Among those killed were 15 soldiers and officers of Russia’s elite Special Operations Forces and at least seven special forces officers of the Russian Security Service (FSB) which included members of its Alpha group, the shadowy unit set up to conduct “black ops” inside and outside of Russia.

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Fatalities in Syria included intelligence officers from the 45th Airborne Special Forces Brigade, soldiers and officers from GRU military intelligence units, as well as more than 20 military pilots and aircrew.

Needless to say, official figures released by the Russian Defense Ministry conflict with the BBC’s figures although it has not released statistics for casualties in Syria since 2019 which put the total as 116 killed on active service.

The last known Russian casualties were reported in October when, according to local sources, two “captain first rank” officers in the Naval Infantry, equivalent to Army colonels, died along with two Syrian generals during an ambush by Islamic State terrorists in the Deir ez-Zor province.

There have currently been no reports of Russian casualties during the most recent offensive that brought down the Assad regime.