Just a few days ago the commander of the Russian Army contingent in Syria acknowledged the participation of Russian Spetsnaz in Syrian military operation on the ground, allegedly as recon units for airstrike targeting. At that time, we asked ourselves: when would the Russian Federation acknowledge the presence in Syria of not only Spetsnaz but also of the large combined army group consisting of marine and army units from three Military Districts: howitzer and rocket artillery battalions, company tactical groups from both light and heavy infantry brigades, radiation and chemical defense units, logistics specialists, and many others that have been uncovered by ‪‎InformNapalm‬ since the fall of 2015.

At the same time, Russian media outlets have been reporting that Syrian government army of Bashar Assad had defeated IS militants and took over the ancient fortress of Palmyra near Tadmor city in Homs province.

“Right now fierce fighting continues in the Syrian desert oasis, where Palmyra is located. The government army has taken control of SyriaTel Hill near Palmyra and some other hills around the city of Tadmor.”

Not so. According to the photos we have discovered in the social network profiles of Russian soldiers, regular Russian army units, and not Spetsnaz, as Kremlin generals have stated, are directly involved in that fighting. One of them is a recon unit of the 20th Motorized Rifle Brigade (military unit 22220, based in Volgograd, Southern Military District), recently redeployed to Syria.

Photos from the battlefield have been uploaded to the social network profile of a Russian soldier named Sergey Gavrilov (see his archived profile and his archived photo album). Most of the photos are recent, many of them had photo filters applied and don’t show faces, but they still provide clear evidence of the presence of Russian troops near Palmyra.

Syria

Volgograd

Additional original photos can be found here or, if the original album is deleted, in its archive.

This article uses the original OSINT research by the international volunteer group InformNapalm.

CC BY 4.0 – Original article written by Irakli Komakhidze, translated by Anton Gavazuk. Upon reuse of the material, an active link to the author and our project is desirable.