"RBK" reported that after completing a training in Krasnodar Krai, Utkin and his men returned to Syria in 2015. Soon after the start of the Russian aerial strikes, reports emerged on the deaths of Russian mercenaries fighting on the ground. Several images spread in the social media apparently depicting armed Russian men killed during the Battle of Palmyra in March 2016. "Sky News" had reported that approximately 500 to 600 people, mostly Wagner mercenaries, were killed in Syria in 2016.