A group of Syrian and Russian soldiers, among them Russian citizen and ethnic Armenian Andranik Arustamyan, died on November 2, 2018 in Syria, the BBC Russian Service reports.

In early November, Novaya Gazeta was the first to report that several Russian citizens could have died in Syria.

The Russian Ministry of Defense (MOD) and the Russian contingent command, however, was not commenting on these reports. For some reason, they had decided not to publicize the death of Junior Sergeant Andranik Arustamyan.

His relatives do not know how many military servicemen—including Arustamyan—had actually died in the explosion of four landmines at the checkpoint of the Russian military base in Ash Shula, Syria. 

Andranik Arustamyan’s body was transferred from Syria to Moscow on November 3, and on the next day—to Totskoye where his family lives.