Officials in Russia's Far East say a memorial honoring Russian military officers killed in Syria has been vandalized.
An Amur region police spokeswoman said on May 10 that police were investigating the appearance of vulgar words painted in black on the memorial to Oleg Peshkov and Aleksandr Pozynich.
The memorial was built near the village of Vozzhayevka in December.
Peshkov, a pilot, served in a military unit in the Amur region for seven years. He was killed in November when a Turkish fighter jet shot down his warplane after it briefly entered Turkish airspace from Syria, ignoring several warnings.
Pozynich was killed during the operation to rescue Peshkov and another Russian pilot, who survived.
Russia has insisted the plane never left Syrian air space.