Russian Federation airstrikes in Syria very effective: United States general

The government’s quick confirmation of a death of a serviceman is hugely unusual and comes as world attention is focussed on Russia’s bombing campaign in its Soviet-era ally Syria.

“The contract serviceman, who served at the airbase as a technical expert, committed suicide during rest time after duty”, the ministry’s press service said. “[On Saturday] he was cheerful, happy and he laughed”, Vadim’s mother said, while his father added that he doesn’t believe that his son would ever have committed suicide “because of a girl”.

Friends have been posting condolences on Kostenko’s page on Russian social networking site VKontakte, with one friend writing, “Brother, we’ll never forget you, we’ll remember, love and mourn for you”.

Vadim Kostenko, a 19-year-old in the air force, died at Russia’s airbase near Latakia on Saturday, his parents said.

Kostenko joined the military in June as a contract soldier and went to Syria with the 906th close air support regiment, the Conflict Intelligence Team reported. He was initially said to have hanged himself, but the official note they received reportedly did not disclose the cause of his death.

Funerals of Russian servicemen were carried out amid secrecy, while those who attempted to investigate the deaths were threatened.

On October. 20, a senior pro-Syrian government military source told Reuters at least three Russian citizens fighting with Syrian government forces had been killed by a shell.

Before Tuesday, reports of Russian deaths in Syria had been unconfirmed.

Vladimir Putin ordered in May that deaths of Russian soldiers during special operations in peacetime should be classified as a state secret.

An unnamed Russian defence ministry source also told the Wall Street Journal on October. 23 that a Russian soldier had been killed in an incident related to careless weapons handling.

Russian officials and army personnel closely guarded information about the deployment of Russian troops to Ukraine during the conflict in the east of the country, insisting when they were caught that the soldiers had either got lost or were no longer on active duty. Russian Federation began airstrikes in Syria September 30, saying they would target the Islamic State militant group, also known as ISIS, to prevent the group from attacking Russian Federation.

They said the soldier had been killed in service and was due to be buried in his home village of Grechanaya Balka “soon”.