APU eliminated at least 10 special forces of the elite detachment of the Russian Guard - media
Date: 2022-08-31 Author: Кирило Загоруйко Categories: WAR
The Russian Air Force service confirmed the death of at least 10 special forces of the elite squad of the Russian Guard "Mercury" from Smolensk.
This is stated in the BBC Telegram.
On July 28, the veteran organization Brotherhood of Maroon Berets - Penza published a video of the Mercury special forces unit. The footage showed 18 photos of special forces with dark ribbons, two carnations lay nearby.
A day earlier, the Ukrainian media reported on the shelling of the location of "Mercury" in the Kharkov region, during which the detachment probably suffered losses.
By comparing these photographs with data in open sources, the Air Force was able to confirm the names of 10 special forces dead, including:
Major Viktor Slushkin;
Senior warrant officer Pavel Stepanenko;
Sergeant Maxim Tregubenko;
Corporal Yaroslav Sim.
Some of them died in May, and several people died in one day on July 19, 2022.
According to the Air Force, in the case of Lieutenant Nikita Tsvirenko, there is information that he ended up serving in a special forces unit of the Russian Guard, but it was not specified in which city. In 2021-2022, Tsvirenko entered football and orienteering competitions in Smolensk, where the Mercury squad is based. His photograph and date of birth match the published image of the deceased officer.
According to publications, Anatoly Yezhov, a senior lieutenant of the same unit, died along with Tsvirenko.
Photographs of eight of the 18 commandos (that is, 40% of the likely dead from the "Mercury") have not yet been identified.
"This coincides with the trend that we observe in cemeteries in various Russian cities. Studying the funerals of the military who died after February 24, 2022, we identify those who were spoken about in public, as well as another 40-60% of the buried soldiers and officers, about whose deaths were not reported by either the authorities, or local journalists, or relatives in social networks,” the journalists note.
