On November 11, 2016  one of Russian provincial newspapers “Rodnikovyi prospect” published an article about the death of a reconnaissance officer Sergey Pechalnov.

The interview with the parents of the dead officer tells about Sergey’s service in the Main Intelligence Directorate’s special forces and about the participation of Senior Lieutenant Pechalnov in the military operation in Syria.

The newspaper reports that Sergey was killed as a result of a mine explosion in June 2016 in Syria. He and his comrade-in-arms were transported to Moscow, to Burdenko Neurosurgery Institute. However, even with the induced coma, the doctors could not save the wounded soldiers. On June 17, 2016, Sergey Pechalnov was buried in his homeland, in the village of Mikhailovskoe, Rodnikovskiy Rayon, Ivanovskaya Oblast (Russia). Besides this article, there were no other comments on the so called heroism of this soldier, neither by the Russian Ministry of Defense, nor by Russian media.

From the interview with the father of the officer, Aleksandr, it becomes evident that the name of the second person struck by the mine was Oleg Arhireev. Ruslan Leviev has already published a text about Arhireev in August 2016. In particular, it was said that captain Oleg Arhireev was killed in action on June 9, 2016. Therefore, Oleg served in the same unit with Sergey Pechalnov.

In the newsfeed of the social network profile of Sergey Pechalnov’s wife Victoria there is a picture  of a memorial with a memorial plate.

This memorial is probably installed on the territory of the military unit 92154, also known as Senezh Special Purpose Center , which is located in the town of Solnechnogorsk in Moscow Oblast. The is suggested not only by the fact that the surrounding buildings look like barracks, but also by the last names of other servicemen commemorated with this memorial:

1.     Captain Sergey Borisovich Suslov. Pictures of his grave with the date of death June 14, 2014, are also included in the CIT report on dead servicemen of Main Intelligence Directorate’s special forces. Sergey Suslov was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage. Ruslan Leviev assumes that the death of this serviceman was related to Russian military operations in Donbas.

2. Lieutenant-Colonel Aleksandr Ivanovich Kononov https://psb4ukr.org/criminal/kononov-aleksandr-ivanovich/. Died on August 12, 2014. He lived in Solnechnogorsk and served in the Senezh Special Purpose Center. He was posthumously awarded with the title of Hero of Russia. According to official information, he was killed in Dagestan. We should not exclude the possibility that losses in Ukraine are masqueraded as results of special operations in different areas.

3.     Senior Lieutenant of Main Intelligence Directorate Aleksandr Zharov. Killed on August 1, 2014. 

They are followed by Russian Special Operations Forces servicemen killed in Syria, as also mentioned in the CIT report.

        4.    Captain Maksim Aleksandrovich Sorochenko. Died on November 19, 2015. Awarded an Order of Kutuzov posthumously.

5.    Captain Fyodor Vladimirovich Zhuravlyov has the same date of death as Sorochenko, he was also killed in Syria.

Pechalnov and Arhireev, who were killed in Syria in June 2016, are listed last. The fact that Sergey Pechalnov was buried in his home village, and not in the Solnechnogorsk cemetery, where all lost Spetsnaz troops are usually buried, was probably the reason why the fact of this death remained unknown for a long time. The newspaper article about Sergey ends with a very reasonable question addressed to the Russian higher military command, which keeps denying the fact of participation of Russian military in foreign conflicts:

Original by Victory Krm

Translated by Maksym Sviezhentsev

Edited by Max Alginin

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