Russian officials reportedly informed Kostenko's parents that their son had died on Oct. 24, saying that he had hung himself. A story published in the Wall Street Journal the previous day, however, quoted an unnamed defense official as saying that "one Russian soldier has died in Syria due to careless handling of weaponry."

The soldier mentioned in the WSJ story has not been identified, leading the CIT — which has previously tracked Russian soldiers' deaths in Ukraine via social media — to question the story the Russian government is providing.