Russian Mercenaries In Syria

The grave of Russian private military contractor Valery Dzyuba, who was said to be killed in Syria, is pictured at a cemetery near the city of Orenburg, in the southern Urals, Russia September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Maria Tsvetkova

Reuters: Dying for a paycheck: the Russian civilians fighting in Syria

ORENBURG, Russia (Reuters) - When Vladimir Kabunin signed up as a private military contractor, he saw a chance to make a wage much higher than any he could earn in his provincial Russian hometown.

Happy to be able to support his wife and son, the ex-police officer left Orenburg, nearly 1,500 km (940 miles) southeast of Moscow, and joined pro-Russian rebels fighting government forces in east Ukraine, a family friend and a relative told Reuters.

When fighting subsided there, he went to Syria to serve as a field medic with troops under Russian command, they said.

Kabunin was killed in Syria this year and his body was sent home, they said. But the government does not recognize he was in Syria, so he was buried without military honors and nothing on his grave shows he was killed in action.

Kabunin, who was 38, was one of hundreds of military contractors secretly recruited by Moscow for combat operations in Syria since Russia’s military operation began there in 2015, according to people familiar with the deployment.

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WNU Editor: Reuters is quoting a number of 1,700 Russian mercenaries .... it is a number that I have also heard in Russian social media.