Russian "volunteers" who are not related to the Ministry of Defence die in Syria - Peskov

The Kremlin advised to rely on data from the Ministry of Defence regarding losses in Syria among Russian soldiers. This is how the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov commented on the Reuters’ publication, where it is said that the number of dead Russians in Syria exceeds official data", - Russian Interfax reports.

He noted that it is necessary to "be guided by the data" that comes from the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation. "The data is official", - he told journalists on Wednesday.

"If there are any Russian citizens who are just volunteers, they have nothing to do with the Ministry of Defence", - Peskov said.

According to him, the Kremlin does not see any reason to recheck the Defence Ministry's data on victims among Russians due to these media reports.

As previously reported, Reuters wrote that since the beginning of 2017, 40 Russian servicemen have died in Syria despite the fact that the Russian Defence Ministry talks only about ten dead soldiers.