Responding to the continuous provocations of the united Russian-separatist forces in Donbas and bombing the peaceful Syrian towns and villages, InformNapalm volunteer community publishes another portion of the information about the Russian air forces’ crews which supposedly take part in the Kremlin’s military adventure in the Middle East.

Aljazeera and other sources have reported that Russia’s air-space forces conducted an airstrike on the market in Ariha town in Idlib province on November 29, killing about 40 citizens (video 18+: 1, 2). Anadolu agency reports that the same day Russians destroyed the bakery of the Turkish charity organization in Saraqib area (Idlib province).

This is InformNapalm’s answer to the Russian provocations and airstrikes – another dataset, which contains information about the Russian air forces’ officers whose crews participate in the punitive missions in Syria:

1. The 6950th guards airbase (Engels, Saratov Oblast) – Tu-160 and Tu-95MS aircrafts of this unit has struck the Syrian territory with Kh-55SM, Kh-555 and Kh-101 cruise missiles.

• The following officers has been identified based on the “Missile carriers. Crusade around the corner. Special coverage” reportage by ‘TVC’ (2014, archive):

Deputy commander of the air group –  guards lieutenant-colonel Aleksandr Khabarov

Tu-95MS ‘Vorkuta’ (tail No. ‘RF-94127’) crew commander – guards major Oleg Stegachev

Tu-95MS ‘Vorkuta’ (tail No. ‘RF-94127’) crew member – guards captain Aleksei Kushlyansky

Tu-95MS ‘Vorkuta’ (tail No. ‘RF-94127’) crew member – guards captain Ivan Gromyko

Tu-95MS ‘Izborsk’ (tail No. ‘RF-94117’) crew commander – guards major Aleksei Pechkarev

Tu-95MS ‘Izborsk’ (tail No. ‘RF-94117’) crew member – guards senior lieutenant Ravkat Yusupov

• Information from the “Even NATO remembers about Krasnoyarsk” article in the ‘Krasnoyarsky rabochiy’  [Krasnoyarsk worker] newspaper (2011, archive) let us identify:

Tu-95MS ‘Krasnoyarsk’ (tail No. ‘RF-94123’) crew commander – guards major Ilya Evstegneev

Tu-95MS ‘Krasnoyarsk’ (tail No. ‘RF-94123’) instructor – lieutenant-colonel Vladimir Lekhachev

Tu-95MS ‘Krasnoyarsk’ (tail No. ‘RF-94123’) navigator – guards major Sergei Kiselev

Tu-95MS ‘Krasnoyarsk’ (tail No. ‘RF-94123’) second navigator – guards lieutenant Vladimi Budekin

Tu-95MS ‘Krasnoyarsk’ (tail No. ‘RF-94123’) board systems officer – guards lieutenant Andrei Sizov

Tu-95MS ‘Krasnoyarsk’ (tail No. ‘RF-94123’) weaponry officer – warrant officer Sergei Orlov

Tu-95MS ‘Krasnoyarsk’ (tail No. ‘RF-94123’) aerial engineer – guards senior lieutenant Artur Bukharov

Commander of the operational department of the wing – guards captain Sergei Kosarev

Engineer – guards captain Sergei Chekmarev

2. The 960th assault aviation regiment (Primorsko-Akhtarks, Krasnodar krai) – Su-25 aircrafts

This aviation unit takes part in support missions for the ground operation of the Russian forces and the Syrian army of Bashar al-Assad.

The following officers have been identified based on the Russian propaganda footages by ‘Mir’, ‘Zvezda’ and ‘Rossiya 1’ channels:

Oleg Yanchuk (archive)

Ivan Baturin (archive)

Vitaly Leontyev (archive)

Dmitry Gavrilkin (archive)

Sergei Nozdrachev  (archive)

Vladimir Usov (archive)

Mikhail Kondratyev (archive)

Evgeny Menshikov (archive)

(CC BY 4.0)

Original article by Mikhail Kuznetsov, translated by Stepan Grishin