Syria’s president, Bashar Al-Assad, called his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and backed his position on Ukraine, the Syrian presidency said in a statement on Friday, amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.
Syria has been a staunch ally of Moscow since Russia launched a military campaign in Syria in 2015 that helped to turn the tide in a civil war in favour of president Bashar al-Assad with massive aerial bombardment of opposition-held areas. Assad called Russia’s offensive in Ukraine a “historical correction.”
“His excellency (Assad) emphasised that Syria stands with the Russian Federation based on its conviction of the correctness of its position,” according to the statement.
Syrian president Assad backs Putin on Ukraine – Syrian presidency https://t.co/ovfGgJfiBM pic.twitter.com/cNK5J2q6Lc
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 25, 2022
Russian forces were said to have reached the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, on Friday.
Damascus is a close ally of Moscow, which intervened in the Syrian civil war in 2015 by launching air strikes to aid the Assad regime’s struggling forces. Assad spoke with Putin a day after Russian forces invaded Ukraine on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, prompting widespread international condemnation.
It allowed pro-regime forces to reclaim lost territory in a series of victories over rebels and jihadists that included lethal bombardments and massive destruction.
According to Moscow, more than 63,000 Russian military personnel have been deployed to Syria. During the phone call on Friday, Assad stated that “Western nations bear responsibility for the chaos and bloodshed,” accusing them of employing “dirty methods to support terrorists in Syria and Nazis in Ukraine.
