On January 21 in Russia marks the engineer troops day, established by presidential decree on September 18, 1996 and attributed to the memorable days of Russia by another presidential order on May 31, 2006.
Engineer troops are special forces intended to perform the most complex tasks of engineering support for combat operations that require special training of personnel and the use of engineering weapons, as well as to inflict losses on the enemy by using particular engineering ammunition.
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Moreover, they participate in countering the enemy's reconnaissance and targeting systems (camouflage), military decoys, providing disinformation and demonstrative actions to deceive the enemy, and also in eliminating the consequences of the enemy's use of weapons of mass destruction.
The engineer troops have played significant roles in supporting the combat operations in Afghanistan, demining in Tajikistan, Transnistria, Abkhazia, peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, as well as in the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus and other regions.
During the operation in Syria, Russian mine clearance specialists cleared more than 6.5 thousand hectares of the country's territory, 1,5 thousand roads, more than 17 thousand buildings and structures, neutralized more than 100 thousand explosive items and more than 30 thousand improvised explosive devices (IEDs). They cleared Palmyra's architectural and historical complex, the urban part of the city and the Palmyra airport, as well as the city of Aleppo.