Russian military personnel are reportedly trapped in Syria, following the ousting of Bashar al-Assad.
The deposed Syrian president has fled to Russia, where he received asylum from his long-time ally, according to Russian media.
This followed advances across the country by rebels led by Islamist-group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), which seized control of the capital, Damascus, in a dramatic and sudden turn in the civil war that started in 2011.
Russia was either unable or unwilling to provide the military support to keep Assad in power in the way it did in 2016, when its intervention in Syria allowed it to protect its significant military assets, such as the naval base in the port city of Tartus.
Russian social media channels are reporting that Moscow’s troops are stuck in the country. “Groups of Russian military personnel are reportedly encircled in Syria,” pro-Ukrainian news outlet UAWire.org reported, citing Russian military bloggers.
One of them, Fighterbomber, said that there “several thousand” Russian military personnel and dozens of pieces of equipment still in the country.
“There are a lot of different units with their own weapons, divided into several groups,” added the post, which noted Russia’s presence at the naval base of Tartus and the airbase at Khmeimim, southeast of Latakia, without giving the specific locations of their whereabouts.
“A couple of days ago, they all relocated behind the mountains, closer to the sea, where they are now waiting for redeployment,” the post said. “Some individual units are now surrounded in a circular defense and are waiting for help, or a corridor to the exit.”
Another post, by the channel RAG&E posted: “At least one group of Russian servicemen is still cut off from our main bases in the region.”
“They have no chance of breaking through on their own. There is no help to be expected from anywhere,” it added. Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.
Ugur Yildirim/Getty Images
Unspecified Syrian opposition leaders have guaranteed the security of Russian military and diplomatic sites in the country, according to Russian state news agency TASS, whose report didn’t clarify if it only applied to the bases at Khmeimim and Tartus, or other outposts, such as Qamishli Airport in the northeast.
Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al Jalali has said that the new Syrian authorities would make the decisions about the future of Russia’s military bases in Syria, according to Saudi-owned outlet al Arabiya.
Volatile Situation
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Sunday that details of this arrangement “remain unclear given the volatile and rapidly evolving political situation.”
In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry said its military bases in Syria “are on high alert. At the moment, there is no serious threat to their safety.”
Satellite imagery from Saturday showed three Russian aircraft, an Ilyushin Il-76 and an Antonov An-124 military transport aircraft at the Khmeimim Air Base, possibly to evacuate military assets from the country.
Moscow would need a “substantial number” of airlift sorties to properly evacuate Syria, the ISW said. The Washington, D.C., think tank also said that the fall of the Assad regime “is a strategic political defeat for Moscow and has thrown the Kremlin into a crisis as it seeks to retain its strategic military basing.”
