MOSCOW – Russian warplanes are continuing to conduct airstrikes in Syria, Russian military officials said Friday, making clear that the Kremlin intends to maintain muscular support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad despite an announced drawdown earlier this week.
The announcement came a day after President Vladimir Putin said Russia could redeploy to Syria “within hours” if it wanted to. Russian warplanes are conducting 20 to 25 sorties a day to support the Syrian army’s attempt to reconquer Palmyra, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, a spokesman for the General Staff of the Russian military, said Friday.
That pace is slower than the more than 100 sorties a day the Russians were conducting in early February, before a shaky cease-fire was put into place. But it is still a powerful show that Putin has not abandoned Assad despite a hard-line stance from Syrian negotiators at peace talks in Geneva this week.
“The Russian aerospace forces will continue to deliver airstrikes upon the terrorist groups ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra in Syrian territory,” Rudskoi told reporters at a briefing in Moscow, referring to the Islamic State and al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate respectively. The Islamic State took over Palmyra last summer.
The significant pace suggests that Russia retains a significant presence of warplanes at its Hmeimim air base in Latakia province, Syria, even though Putin made a surprise announcement about a drawdown on Monday.
