Moscow grills diplomats over Syria civilian death reports

The soldier was identified as Vadim Kostenko, 19, from Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, and his parents said they were told he hanged himself over a relationship with a girl. But his family is not convinced.

“I will never believe this version (suicide)”, said Kostenko’s mother Svetlana. “(On Saturday) he was cheerful, happy, and he laughed”.

While Isil controls much of eastern Syria, the bulk of air strikes reported by the Russian ministry of defence have targeted the western part of the country, where regime troops, backed by Iranian forces and Hizbollah fighters, are trying to push back assorted rebel groups near Damascus, Aleppo, and Hama.

Kostenko had been drafted into military service. The team confirmed the report after contacting relatives, prompting Russia’s Ministry of Defence to make an official announcement about his death.

The commander had told them that Vadim had been the only one to die, they said, saying their son’s funeral would take place on Wednesday, after they received his body.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday told reporters he had no information about “the alleged death of a Russian serviceman in Syria”, local news agencies reported.

The Defense Ministry said Kostenko was serving as a ground technician at a Russian airbase called Hmeymim, near the Syrian city of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast, where the majority of Russia’s forces in the country are based.

“Russia’s military cooperation is necessary today to bolster the Syrian state, but the problem will come if there is no political investment in the future, in which case we’ll just have other battles”, the 40-year-old says.

The Syrian-American Medical Society, which operates several facilities in Syria, said Thursday that nine Russian air strikes have hit hospitals or field clinics.

Kostenko was based at the Primorsko-Akhtarsk military air base not far from the village, but visited home whenever he could and was well-liked, Bagryuk said in the schoolyard where Kostenko played as a boy.

A first Russian soldier on active duty has died in Syria since the Russian President Vladimir Putin started a military intervention four weeks ago.

These Russian-monitored areas “have endangered the IAF’s favorite corridor of flight into Syria”, the Insider reported. Innocent women, children and elderly Syrians are being killed or forced to flee yet again because of the fighting.

According to data from Syrian Civil Defense rescue workers, he said, more than 436 civilians have been killed since then and “more than half of these civilian deaths are directly attributable to Russian airstrikes”. Under Russian law, reporting on the death of military personnel even in times of peace has been banned.

The Wall Street Journal quoted a Russian defence source on Saturday stating that a serviceman had been killed in Syria while mishandling weapons.