On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry officially confirmed the death of the first high-ranking military in Syria. As reported by the military department, on September 23, after the mortar shelling in Deir-ez-Zor, Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov died. According to "Kommersant", in Syria, he served less than a year. He became the 38th Russian serviceman who died from the beginning of the operation. The Ministry of Defense noted that the general was posthumously presented to a high state award.

Kommersant learned that the first Russian officer, Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov, was killed in Syria during the mortar shelling of Deir-ez-Zor. According to a source from Kommersant close to the RF Ministry of Defense, this happened on September 23: "The general literally tore up, there was nothing left of the man, since he was on the front line." The first about the death of the Russian general was reported by the radio station "Says Moscow". As the radio stations in the headquarters of the 5th Army told, General Asapov did not get in touch from 16:00 on Saturday. The interlocutor "Says Moscow" noted that the projectile hit the command post and together with the general two colonels were killed.

As reported by RIA Novosti referring to the Russian Defense Ministry, the senior group of Russian military advisers, Lieutenant-General Asapov was at the command post of the Syrian troops, assisting the Syrian commanders in the operation of the operation to free the city of Deir ez Zor. Recall, on September 5, the Syrian government army with the support of Russian aviation managed to unblock the city of Deir-ez-Zor, which for 28 months was surrounded by militants of the "Islamic state".

Assault detachments broke through the encirclement of the Islamists and began to sweep the city quarters.

Having liberated the city, Bashar Assad's troops will be able to advance along the Euphrates river valley and reach the border with Iraq. But the militants of the "Islamic state" continue to provide active resistance and daily shelling the neighborhoods of Deir-ez-Zor. The victim of the next shelling was the Russian general.

The Defense Ministry said that Valery Asapov was posthumously represented to a high state award, but did not specify what award was being discussed.

General Asapov was deputy commander of the 5th Red Banner Army of the Eastern Military District. He was previously awarded many military awards, including the Order of Courage, the Order "For Military Merit", the Order "Veteran Cross" II degree and the medal "For Military Merit". In January 1995, he was sent to Chechnya in the post of chief of staff of the battalion and the rank of major and in Grozny received a heavy gunshot wound in the leg. After graduation from the Frunze Military Academy, Colonel Asapov was appointed to the post of deputy commander of a separate paratrooper regiment in the peacekeeping forces in Abkhazia. After graduation from the Military Academy of the General Staff, he was appointed commander of the 37th Independent Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 36th Army of the Eastern Military District, which during the year took part in three international exercises together with the armies of Mongolia and India, for which in 2013 President Vladimir Putin presented Valery Asapov with the Order of Merit for the Fatherland of the 4th degree.

The surname of the deceased general repeatedly appeared in the media in connection with military operations in the Donbass. In March 2016, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine stated that the staff officer of the Russian army, Major-General Valery Asapov, "participates in a military conflict in the southeast of Ukraine."

September 20, it became known that another military man from Russia was killed in Syria. Vladimir Tarasyuk was a participant in military operations in Chechnya, had awards for military achievements. According to his younger sister Olga, who acted on the air of the "Bratsk studio of television", on September 16, around 10:30 local time, he returned to the base "with the colonel and the general", but in the end they were ambushed by militants. "He still lived 40 minutes. I got a splinter wound in the head to the left and just bleed, "said Olga." The militants did not allow the helicopter to land to pick up their own, and unfortunately it happened. "