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Today Vladimir Putin awarded Russian servicemen who were killed and wounded recently in Syria's Aleppo. According to sate media, apart from nurses Durachenko and Mikhailova, professor of medicine Arsentyev and colonel Galitskiy, another person who was awarded was colonel Eduard Skvortsov.

Various media articles and social media posts indicate that colonel Skvortsov commanded 16th Separate Special Forces Brigade of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, based in the city of Tambov. In a photo by a local publication onlinetambov.ru, Skvortsov is seen commanding the 2016 V-day parade in Tambov.

At least three servicemen of the 16th Spetsnaz brigade were killed in Eastern Ukraine in May 2015. That year, we found their graves in Russia with wreaths from the Ministry of Defense and a photograph of one of them at a separatist base in Luhansk, Eastern Ukraine. Later the circumstances of their deaths were officially named a state secret.

https://citeam.org/spetsnaz-brigade-in-ukraine/

This is not the first evidence of the presence of 16th Spetsnaz brigade fighers in Syria. In November 2015 we found an Instagram account of an active or former serviceman of the 16th brigade Ilya Gorelyh. He uploaded photos of himself with weapons geotagged in various locations across Syria.

https://citeam.org/russia-s-activities-on-the-ground-in-syria/#gru