Thread by @RALee85

BBC Russia has a good report about Major Sukhrob Karimov, who was killed in Syria on Feb 22, but whose death still has not been acknowledged by the Russian MoD. Karimov was a battalion commander in Amur's 38th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade.(h/t @AbraxasSpa)1/
bbc.com/russian/amp/fe…

This was his 2nd deployment to Syria, which started sometime over the summer and was slated to last 8-9 months. Because of his proficiency with Arabic, Karimov was sent to serve as an interpreter, so he likely did not deploy with his battalion. 2/

Based off his gear in the first photo (including a 5.45 Design Spartanets helmet), he was likely serving with a Russian spetsnaz unit in Syria. His relatives were told that he and two Colonels were killed in a UAZ while driving through Al Mayadin near Deir ez-Zor. 3/

Presumably, they were in an UAZ Patriot, or possible an older UAZ-469, but both are light vehicles. The BBC could not confirm the names of the other soldiers, but Dmitry Tymchuk, a Ukrainian MP, said Colonel Omarov, commander of the GRU's 3rd Spetsnaz Brigade, was one of them. 4/

Tymchuk made this claim on Facebook last week (he also said 4 servicemen were killed). He said Omarov took charge of the 3rd Spetsnaz Brigade in Feb. 2014, and fought in Ukraine. Given Karimov's rank, it makes sense that he would be with a senior Russian officer. 5/

Karimov's family last spoke to him on Feb 22, and then heard nothing about him until the MoD requested family members come to the Burdenko Military Hospital for a DNA test to identify the body 3 weeks later. The MoD still has not confirmed his death or his compatriots'. 6/

According to the BBC, the Russian MoD has officially acknowledged the deaths of 108 servicemen in Syria, 41 from Sep 2015-Dec 2017 and 67 since then. The MoD has often not recognized its losses though, including SSO specialist Maxim Pletnev in January. 7/

Or Andranik Arustamyan from the 21st Guards Motor Rifle Brigade on November 2, 2018. Russia is clearly not keen to publicly acknowledge losses, particularly those suffered after Putin declared victory in Dec 2017 (the majority of Russia's losses occurred after that speech). 8/

I should also note that Russia couldn't deny some of these losses, like the An-26 crash in March that killed 39 or the loss of their Il-20 in Sep. that killed 15 (54 died in both incidents) It is far easier to deny the death of an individual soldier in a fire fight/IED blast. 9/

That they are denying the deaths of soldiers from infantry units (not just SSO/Spetsnaz) who are doing nothing secretive in a war they have acknowledged (unlike the Donbass), shows the extent to which Russia is concerned about the effect of casualty figures on popular opinion.10/

As @QalaatAlMudiq suggested, it seems as though previously released footage of a destroyed UAZ Hunter, which is an updated version of the UAZ-469/3151, showed their vehicle. From the footage, it seems they were killed by small arms fire and not an IED. 11/

As others have noted, Russian forces have a variety of MRAPS and armored vehicles in service. K-4386, K-53949, and K-63968 from the Typhoon-K family, and the Ural-VV (Ural-432009) MRAP have been seen in Syria, as well as Tigr-M and Rys armored vehicles. 12/

Though SSO have been seen driving around in technicals and vans in Syria, generally the Tigr-M has been the standard vehicle, even though they have sustained IED K-Kills (e.g. General Pyotr Milyukhin's death). So it is surprising they would use a soft-skinned military vehicle.13/