Media: 40 Russian citizens killed in Syria this year

Baku. 2 August. REPORT.AZ/ Since the beginning of the year, 40 Russians have been killed in Syria, including 17 servicemen and 21 fighters of private military companies.

Report informs citing the Reuters that talked with relatives and friends of the deceased.

It is reported that the identity of two more dead could not be established.

Thus, Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported the death of only ten servicemen.

In turn, the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major-General Igor Konashenkov, denied the data of the British agency Reuters on the number of Russian servicemen killed in Syria.

According to him, the British agency is not the first time trying to discredit the Russian operation in Syria by any means, and an article about "secret losses" among the military is not an exception.

Officially, Russian Ministry of Defense claims that for almost two years of the Syrian operation, 33 servicemen were killed there.