Russia helped Syrian President Bashar Assad escape, the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine claims.
On the morning of December 8, Assad flew out of the Syrian capital, Damascus. After that, the Reuters agency, citing a source, wrote that he could have died in a plane crash. The Syrian Air plane, on which Assad was flying, took a course for the coastal areas where Russian air and naval bases are located, but after a few minutes made a sharp turn — and disappeared from radar when it was at an altitude of 500 meters.
The media linked it to a possible plane crash or plane crash. But they did not rule out the possibility that the plane was not shot down, but its transponder — a device that transmits signals — turned off.
However, Ukrainian intelligence later said that the disappearance of Assadʼs plane from radar was Russian disinformation. Russia used this to hide the operation to save Assad and people close to him. The planeʼs crew probably followed the instructions of the Russians and acted under their direction.
According to the Intelligence, the situation of the Russian military in Syria remains steadily difficult — they are hastily evacuating. Russian generals were the first to leave Syria: first, Sergey Kisil, who was dismissed from the post of commander of Russian forces in the region on December 1, and then the new commander, Oleksandr Chaika.
To remove the remains of their weapons, equipment and personnel, the Russians have engaged additional ships, in particular from the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Federation.
What preceded
Active clashes between the rebels and Syrian troops began on November 27. The offensive was launched by the Syrian Revolutionary Forces in "response to months of continuous attacks on civilians" by the Assad regime in Aleppo province. It was the most intense fighting in northwest Syria since 2020 when government forces seized areas previously controlled by opposition fighters.
In early December, the media reported that Assadʼs forces had lost control of Aleppo for the first time since the beginning of the military conflict that began more than a decade ago. Later, it became known about the loss of the city of Hama, the fifth largest in the country, by the Assad regime. On December 8, the Assad regime fell after the opposition attacked the capital, Damascus.
The countryʼs prime minister is preparing to hand over the functions of the transitional government to her. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Bashar al-Assad left the post of president of Syria and left the country, adding that he gave the order to transfer power peacefully and, before that, held negotiations with the participants in the conflict.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.