Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov talks at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, February 17, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that reports that hundreds of Russian mercenaries had been killed in Syria recently were an attempt to exploit the war there, the RIA news agency reported.

About 300 men working for a Kremlin-linked Russian private military firm were either killed or injured in Syria in an incident this month, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last week.