Syrian man in Damascus holding an edition of Syrian al- Thawra (The Revolution) newspaper displaying a picture of President Bashar al- Assad with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin Syrian man in Damascus holding an edition of Syrian al- Thawra (The Revolution) newspaper displaying a picture of President Bashar al- Assad with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin

GRECHANAYA BALKA: The parents of the first Russian serviceman confirmed dead in four weeks of air strikes in Syria said yesterday they did not believe the military's account that their 19-year-old son had hanged himself.

In an interview with Reuters at their home in southern Russia, Alexander and Svetlana Kostenko said their son, Vadim, had sounded cheerful over the phone as recently as Saturday, the day he died while working at an air base on the Syrian coast.

"I will never believe this version (suicide)," said Svetlana, who was wearing a black head scarf. "We spoke every day by phone for half an hour. (On Saturday) he was cheerful, happy, and he laughed," she said. Alexander, Vadim's father, speaking in a low voice, agreed:

"We were told he had hanged himself because of a girl. He would never have done it. I know my son really well." Kostenko was one of the Russian air force's support staff. He signed a contract on June 20 and was dispatched to Syria by plane on Sept. 14, two weeks before the Kremlin's air campaign began, his father said. He said they had only discovered Vadim was in Syria when he was already there.

Interfax news agency quoted a source in the defence ministry's press service confirming the death. "A contract serviceman stationed at the Hmeimim airbase (in Latakia) as a technician committed suicide while he was resting after duty," the source told Interfax.

"According to preliminary information, in particular the analysis of text messages in his phone, the reason for the death of the contract serviceman is problems in his personal relationship with a girl," the source said.

The ministry did not respond to written questions from Reuters. Opinion polls show strong public support at home for the Kremlin's air campaign in support of the government of President Bashar al-Assad; one survey put support above 70 percent.

If the air force suffers serious fatalities, sentiment could change toward the mission, Moscow's first major combat outside the frontiers of the former Soviet Union since the disastrous Soviet campaign in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Kostenko's death was first flagged by Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), a group of bloggers led by Ruslan Leviev who have previously worked to uncover information about Russian military deaths in Ukraine, where Russia denies its troops are fighting despite what Western countries say is overwhelming evidence.

WOULD-BE PILOT

A Reuters reporter was told she could not enter the base of the air force unit, in Primorsko-Akhtarsk, where Kostenko served, and where CIT says Sukhoi-25 jets operational in Syria are usually based.

When asked if it was true that a serviceman from the base had died in Syria, an officer leaving the base on Tuesday morning, who declined to give his name, said: "Yes, I heard about that." He refused to provide any more details.

Standing in front of their house in the village of Grechanaya Balka in southern Russia as hens clucked around them, the Kostenkos said their son's battalion commander had broken the bad news personally, telling them Vadim had hanged himself on Saturday, Oct. 24.

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.

Vadim's younger sister, Katya, and his aunt, Anna Musienko, said they also did not believe he had killed himself. They said Vadim was planning to marry his girlfriend, that the two got along really well, and that he introduced her to his family over the summer.

Musienko painted a picture of her nephew as someone who was enthused by serving in the military, saying Vadim had nursed ambitions to train as a pilot. Vadim had told his relatives that he and his friends could not refuse the order to go to Syria when it came, she said.

President Vladimir Putin ordered in May that deaths of Russian soldiers during special operations in peacetime should be classified as a state secret. Before yesterday, reports of Russian deaths in Syria had been unconfirmed.

On Oct. 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. Russian authorities strongly denied at the time that any of their military personnel had been killed.

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