Now the name of the hero is known, who for a whole week, being behind enemy lines, aimed our planes at the target, and then called fire on himself. Alexander Prokhorenko, originally from the small village of Gorodki in the Orenburg region. Alexander was a graduate of the Military Academy of Air Defense of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky.
Official statement: “An officer of the Russian special operations forces was killed while carrying out a special task of directing Russian aircraft strikes against the targets of ISIS terrorists. The officer performed a combat mission in the Palmyra region for a week, identifying the most important objects of the ISIS and giving out exact coordinates for strikes by Russian aircraft. The serviceman died heroically, causing fire on himself, after he was discovered by terrorists and surrounded.
A Russian spetsnaz officer did the dangerous work of an advanced aircraft controller. The work of an aircraft controller is always considered deadly. They always have a special attitude in the troops. The work of an advanced aircraft controller not only contributes to the success of combat operations. The lives of tens or even hundreds of fighters fighting on the ground often depend on their skill, courage and ability to self-sacrifice. The air controller is not only deployed to the front line, he often works literally at the enemy’s location, is located in the very “enemy’s lair”. Most often they work alone - it's easier to covertly get close to the enemy and remain invisible. The air controller goes behind enemy lines, carrying communications equipment, equipment, and ammunition. Knowing that he will be especially diligently hunted. And the enemies are doing everything to detect and destroy the air strike spotter.
The fearless officer found himself surrounded by terrorists. Not wanting to die without a fight, he ordered the command to drop bombs on his location and died from the explosion. He was only 25 years old. At home, the Russian officer left his parents and his young wife Ekaterina, who is expecting a child. There were many military men in Alexander's family, his brother is also graduating from a military school. Alexander dreamed of becoming an officer since childhood. He graduated from school with a silver medal, the academy with a gold one. An ordinary Russian guy from an ordinary Russian peasant family.
Source
http://ruskline.ru/opp/2016/aprel/02/geroj_palmiry_gde_zhil_i_chemu_uchilsya_pogibshij_v_sirii_specnazovec_aleksandr_prohorenko/
The Russian Hero, who caused fire on himself, turned out to be a boy from the Orenburg hinterland.
Federal and foreign media all day with admiration talk about the feat of an officer of the Russian special operations forces in Syria: once surrounded, he caused fire on himself. The Ministry of Defense does not deny the fact, but neither the name nor the surname of the hero is yet known. As we managed to find out, the deceased officer is Alexander Prokhorenko. He was 25 years old ... - reports orenday.ru.
A rural boy from the village of Gorodki, Tyulgansky District, began his military career immediately after school at the Military Academy of Air Defense of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It ended in less than 10 years, unfortunately, tragically.
Last week, the Daily Mirror newspaper published an article “A brave Russian special forces soldier, abandoned on a solitary mission to hunt for ISIS militants (group banned in the Russian Federation. - Ed.), died heroically, causing an airstrike on himself. The fearless officer sent Russian aircraft to ISIS positions near the ancient city of Palmyra, but found himself surrounded by terrorists. Not wanting to die without a fight, he ordered the command to drop bombs on his location and died from the explosion.
An official comment followed from representatives of the Russian base Khmeimim:
An officer of the Russian special operations forces was killed while carrying out a special task of directing Russian aircraft strikes at the targets of ISIS terrorists. The officer performed a combat mission in the Palmyra region for a week, identifying the most important objects of the ISIS and giving out exact coordinates for strikes by Russian aircraft. The serviceman died heroically, causing fire on himself, after he was discovered by terrorists and surrounded.
The reaction of the militants was swift. The commandos were pinned down by fire, simultaneously pushing pickup trucks with machine guns from two directions. The attempt to break away failed - the group was squeezed into a ring, which was shrinking every minute. No, of course, help was immediately called ... But during the night the group was too far away from their advanced positions. Now they just couldn't. Artillery and aviation also could not do anything - the enemy approached the group already at close range.
"Hold on!" - conjured on the radio. It was clear that the rescuers were pressing at full speed, but ... But one by one, local commandos died. Alexander, with a shot through his leg, crawled into some kind of pit, from where he threw grenades and fired back until the Kalashnikov spit out a tracer instead of an ordinary bullet.
It was bad. This means that there are three pieces of ammunition left in the magazine - no more. Our man, equipping automatic "horns", was always the first to drive three or four tracer cartridges into the store in order to understand in time in battle when it was time to reload. So the tracer shot was really bad. Ammunition left the cat wept. And a completely disgusting sign was the almost subsided shooting. Therefore, the enemy realized that only one of the group survived, and he would now be taken prisoner. Alive.
It was at this very moment that Alexandri must have decided to die. What he was thinking at that moment, now no one will know. He came here, to the Middle East, from a distant northern country, to protect this northernmost country here. To save what's left of the Middle East. People who do not want to live according to the laws of barbarism, and buildings, through the efforts of the barbarians, systematically turned into illustrations of history books. He did what he could. Now all that was left was to do what had to be done.
Deftly, as he was taught, he reloaded the machine gun. He estimated that fragments and the shock wave of air bombs would not reach from his pit to the ancient columns. Got in touch with a pair of bombers loitering to the north. I gave them my coordinates, accompanying them with the mark “stationary target”. Waiting for confirmation of receipt of data. Learned the flight time. With several shots, he disabled the "Sagittarius" - a complex of intelligence, control and communications.
After that, he accepted his last fight for a whole three minutes, from which he emerged victorious. At least he held out until the moment when his pit and its surroundings were not lifted to the dazzling Middle Eastern skies by the bombing ammatol, along with himself, the enemies and their pickup trucks.
The “Sushki” who carried out the reset had no idea that they had bombed in their own way, and for a long time later they tried to get a “receipt” from the ground about the results of the bombing and assault strike.
The parents and wife of Alexander Prokhorenko have already been notified. Together with relatives, the whole village, close people, friends, classmates and colleagues of the Russian officer are mourning.
"I admire the heroism of a simple rural boy who was able to put the achievement of the goal and the preservation of our lives above his own," said one of Alexander Prokhorenko's acquaintances.
We are in mourning throughout the village. No one really knew where Sasha served, they only gossiped that he was in the secret troops. He graduated from our school with a silver medal, the military academy - with a gold one. The guy is the pride of his parents, - says the head teacher of the Gorodetsk secondary school Natalya Meshkova. - We only release such guys from our school who, in a difficult moment, will not be afraid, will not regret anything ...
On the site of a rural school, which Alexander graduated in 2007. The team of the Gorodets school took first place in the regional competitions in Russian bast shoes, and Sasha is in the forefront.
Who was the first to cross the finish line at the regional cross? Of course, Prokhorenko.
Friends of a thin boy, who, as it turned out, had remarkable inner strength, affectionately called Prokha
The hero Sasha Prokhorenko, in addition to elderly parents and brother, has a wife, whom they married a year and a half ago. At the moment, Ekaterina Prokhorenko is waiting for an heir. Unfortunately, the hero's son or daughter will know about dad only from photographs and stories. But we are sure that they will be proud of it.
Outnumbered enemy forces
“The offensive was carried out with the support of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, it was preceded by powerful fire training. During the day, the militants managed to penetrate the defenses of government troops to a depth of 12 kilometers, at the front up to 20 kilometers, ”the Ministry of Defense reports, specifying that the clashes took place in the Idlib de-escalation zone.
Russian military personnel accomplished a feat in Syria
According to the head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Colonel-General Sergei Rudskoy, the terrorist offensive was initiated by the American special services in order to stop the successfully developing advance of government troops east of Deir ez-Zor, to the garrison of which the Syrian army broke through in early September.
For several hours, the Russian police, together with a detachment of the Muali tribe, which had previously joined the truce, repelled the attacks of superior enemy forces. The incident was reported to the commander of the Russian grouping of troops in the SAR, Colonel-General Sergei Surovikin.
The military leader decided to form a group to deblockade a military police platoon. It included units of the Special Operations Forces (SOF), the military police, staffed by people from the North Caucasus, and the Syrian special forces. The group was headed by Deputy Head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties, Hero of Russia Major General Viktor Shulyak.
The servicemen were provided with fire support by two Su-25 attack aircraft, which attacked enemy manpower and armored vehicles from extremely low altitudes. As a result of the attack of the Russian troops, the encirclement was broken. It was not possible to recapture the territory occupied by terrorists, however, a platoon of military police and other servicemen reached the area where government troops were located without loss.
During the deblockade operation, three commandos were injured (the severity was not specified). All participants in the battle are presented for state awards. The onslaught of Jabhat al-Nusra was stopped. “During the day, 187 targets were defeated by air strikes and artillery fire, about 850 terrorists, 11 tanks, 4 infantry fighting vehicles, 46 pickups, 5 mortars, 20 trucks, 38 weapons depots were destroyed,” Rudskoy reported.
The successful work of the Aerospace Forces and artillery crews allowed the 5th Airborne Assault Corps of Syria to launch a counteroffensive and almost completely restore the lost position.
Difficult choice
The information provided by the Ministry of Defense provides great food for analyzing the specifics of the Russian military presence in Syria. According to the current agreements, four battalions of the Russian military police monitor the observance of the truce in the four de-escalation zones, performing mainly security functions. It follows from open data that the red berets are armed with small arms, grenade launchers and a number of armored vehicles (in particular, Typhoon and Tiger).
In the absence of heavy weapons, it is extremely difficult to repel the massive attacks of militants. Nevertheless, the police were able to hold out without loss. This testifies either to the high combat readiness of the Russians and the skillful organization of the defense, or to the fact that the attack of the militants on the location of the platoon was not accompanied by the support of tanks and artillery pieces.
The strike force that carried out the blockade operation consisted of SOF officers, colleagues of the policemen who were surrounded, Syrian special forces and the crew of two Su-25s (although at low altitudes it was much more logical to use helicopters).
The composition of the deblockade group may indicate that the Russian command is faced with a difficult choice. There were probably few forces to save the red berets, and therefore such a motley formation had to be pulled together. In particular, according to a similar scenario, an operation was organized to rescue the crew of a Su-24M front-line bomber shot down by Turkey on November 24, 2015. Then the Hezbollah special forces provided support to the Russian military.
The fact that the military police platoon was surrounded means at least weak reconnaissance in the de-escalation zone. The Ministry of Defense nods at the American intelligence services, but in the end we get a miscalculation of either the Syrian army or our military intelligence (if, of course, it operated in the Hama region).
Jabhat al-Nusra's offensive was "large-scale", which means that its preparation could be tracked. Blaming the American intelligence services (probably referring to the CIA, which oversees several gangs in the SAR) is more like an attempt to justify the mistake of government forces or Russian intelligence.
If the position of the military police platoon turned out to be really deplorable for various reasons, then the incident in the Hama region can be called without exaggeration a feat of Russian military personnel, and the rescue operation is unique due to the lack of necessary military equipment. Military police officers and servicemen of the MTR covered themselves with unfading military glory.
For courage and heroism
The display of extraordinary courage and professionalism has always been a hallmark of our army. The operation in Syria was no exception. In the first half of May, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the title of Hero of Russia to four Russian SOF officers who, as part of a group of 16 people, fought off attacks by 300 Jabhat al-Nusra militants for two days. The encirclement was made possible by the chaotic retreat of the Syrian army.
On May 24, in the presence of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, Putin personally awarded the special forces. This is not the first time that Russian military personnel who are fighting both in the sky and on the ground have been awarded, although there is extremely scarce information about the ground operations of the Russian army.
So, in March, 21 participants in the operation in Syria received state awards in the St. George Hall of the Kremlin: four servicemen received the title of Hero of Russia, 17 people received the Order of St. It is possible that the Russians awarded by the head of state, like their colleagues from the SOF, became victims of the unprofessionalism of the Syrian army.
Far from always the history of exploits is made public. The Russian state is not often the first to report on the heroism and dedication of our servicemen who died in combat with terrorists. So it was with the message about the death of a special forces soldier Alexander Prokhorenko, who caused fire on himself during the liberation of Palmyra on March 17, 2016. The feat of the lieutenant was first reported by the Western media, and only then did he find a response in Russia.
Few people know the feat of the 35-year-old head of intelligence of the headquarters of the howitzer self-propelled artillery battalion, Captain Marat Akhmetshin. The funeral and posthumous awards took place in secrecy on June 6 and August 31, 2016. A native of Kazan died near Palmyra, his family received a message of death on June 3, 2016.
On June 23, 2016, a decree of the President of the Russian Federation was issued on awarding Akhmetshin the title of Hero of Russia "for courage and heroism in the performance of special tasks." The circumstances of the feat are classified, but the general picture of the battle in January 2017 was described by the father of the deceased captain. It follows from his words that Akhmetshin and other servicemen opposed 200 militants.
“When help arrived and the attack was repulsed, he was found still alive. He, all wounded, held a grenade without checks in his hand, and the earth was burning around him. Apparently, he wanted to blow himself up if the ISIS approached. Our people took the grenade, threw it aside to explode. Only then the son lost consciousness and fell face down into the fire,” said the father of the hero of Russia.
Presumably, at the end of December 2016 or the beginning of January 2017, by a closed decree of the President of the Russian Federation, employees of the MTR were awarded, who eliminated the organizers of the shelling of the Russian field hospital in Aleppo. On December 5, 2016, medical sergeants Nadezhda Durachenko and Galina Mikhailova became victims of militant shells. In total, the Syrian campaign claimed the lives of 34 Russians.
It lasted almost two years and ended with the almost complete annihilation of the terrorists on the territory of the Arab Republic. It is quite possible that it would have taken much longer to achieve the tasks set if it were not for the dedication of the Russian military personnel, who even today preserve order in the Middle East.
"Russian Rambo"
March 17, 2016. Senior Lieutenant Alexander Prokhorenko, who for a week alone corrected the fire of Russian aviation in the very rear of the enemy in the Palmyra region, was surrounded by terrorists. The militants spotted his shelter and tried to take the military prisoner. But he accepted an unequal battle and at the moment when the ammunition was already running out, he asked the command to launch an air strike on his coordinates.
Admired by the act of Alexander Prokhorenko, the Western media called him "Russian Rambo". However, for some Russians, the parallel with the Hollywood character seemed offensive. For them, he is a Hero of Russia, who gave his life serving the Motherland.
However, no matter how the senior lieutenant is called, his words “I call fire on myself” have become a symbol of selflessness not only in our country, but throughout the world.
One against 200 June 3, 2016. Captain Marat Akhmetshin, according to his father, performed a combat mission near Palmyra - apparently, he performed the functions of a military instructor. At the time of the attack by militants of the Islamic State terrorist group banned in Russia, the soldier was alone against 200 people.
The terrorists have tanks and armored personnel carriers, while Akhmetshin has grenades and four cannons. But this did not prevent the captain from giving battle and knocking out several pieces of equipment.
As a result of the collision, the military received several mortal wounds, but when help arrived in time, he was still alive. In his hands was a grenade without a check, which Akhmetshin would certainly use if the ISIS approached.
The feat of the captain remained a mystery for a long time. His funeral was held in secrecy on 6 June. According to the official version, voiced by the family, he "died while performing a combat mission as part of a military contingent in Syria."
However, already on June 23, the President of Russia awarded Akhmetshin the title of Hero of Russia "for courage and heroism in the performance of special tasks." And only six months after that, the meager details of what happened to the captain became known to the media.
16 in the field of warriors
May 2017. By a closed presidential decree, four fighters of the Special Forces group were awarded the title of Hero of Russia. Their positions and call signs are unknown, only names and ranks: Daniil, Eugene, Roman and Vyacheslav - two lieutenant colonels and two captains.
Some time ago, they and 12 other people took the fight against several hundred militants. The group received the task of advancing to the Aleppo province area, from where information was received about the increasing attacks of Jabhat al-Nusra (an organization banned in Russia - ed.) on the defensive positions of government forces. She was instructed to conduct reconnaissance and identify the coordinates of the places of accumulation of equipment and manpower of the enemy.
During the operation, the Russian military was suddenly attacked by militants. The terrorists fired at them from Grad installations, cannons, mortars and even tanks. Due to the confusion, the Syrian troops withdrew, the special forces group was left alone in the forward positions.
There were about three hundred attackers. All of them, as it turned out later, were well equipped. On the first day of defense, the Russians repelled four terrorist attacks, destroying a tank, a shahid-mobile with a bulldozer covering it, and a Zu-23 anti-aircraft gun on the vehicle.
In total, the group held out for more than a day, until government troops approached. This is how the Russian military retained control over strategically important heights and possibly saved dozens of Syrian army soldiers. It was not for nothing that at the presentation for the award, the president wrote with his own hand: “I will hand it over personally.”
"This is for you guys!"
February 3, 2018. Guard Major Roman Filipov flew around the Idlib de-escalation zone. Near the city of Serakib, his Su-25SM was shot down by a man-portable anti-aircraft missile system - presumably a Soviet Igla or an American Stinger.
After unsuccessful attempts to keep the plane in the air, the pilot decided to eject. Having landed, Filipov was surrounded by militants: judging by the records of the terrorists, there were at least ten of them. Having taken a position behind a boulder, the major of the guards fired back at the attackers from his only weapon - a Stechkin pistol, and was wounded. Ironically, the pilot's second magazine jammed in half, because of which he missed several very necessary cartridges.
When the militants got very close, Roman Filipov, hoping to catch several jihadists, blew himself up with a grenade. In the video that the militants filmed, you can clearly hear how before that he shouted: “This is for the boys!”
With a high-precision retaliatory strike, the Russian military destroyed three dozen militants in the area where the plane fell. A guard major a few days later was awarded the title of Hero of Russia.
Know our
It is hardly possible to enumerate all the feats accomplished by our guys in Syria. The number of Heroes of Russia who received this title for their actions in the Arab Republic has already exceeded two dozen. Some of them received the award posthumously, like the same Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Peshkov, whose plane was shot down by a Turkish fighter, or Ryafagat Khabibullin, who trained pilots for the Syrian operation and died in a helicopter crash near Palmyra.
Someone, like another gunner, corporal Denis Portnyagin, who, together with his group, held out in an unequal battle, was lucky to stay alive.
Of course, there are many representatives of "high offices" among the Heroes. But even more - ordinary soldiers who daily performed their duty thousands of kilometers from their homeland, risking their own lives. There are hundreds, if not thousands of them.
And let no one have the right to rank the specific actions of the military according to the degree of heroism. But every Russian can confidently call the liberation of the country from terrorists the main feat of his compatriots in Syria.
It is thanks to the soldiers and officers from Russia, ordinary pilots, instructors and sappers that the republic, which was on the verge of collapse a few years ago, got a chance to move on to peaceful restoration.
It is thanks to them that the terrorist threat did not spread around the world and was destroyed almost in the bud.
