The new Syrian government demands that Russia completely withdraw its military contingent from the countryʼs territory no later than February 20, 2025. This is how they want to achieve the lifting of international sanctions after the overthrow of the Bashar Assad regime.
This was reported by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
Russia is currently continuing to withdraw its troops from Syria. But the cargo ship Sparta, which was transporting Russian weapons and equipment, broke down during the voyage.
The ship has a fuel line failure in its main engine. The Russian crew is trying to fix the problem and is drifting in the open sea near Portugal.
The remnants of the Russian contingent in Syria have now completed their withdrawal from remote areas and are staying in only two locations — at the Khmeymim air base and the naval base in Tartus. Russia is transferring some of its weapons and equipment from the port of Tartus by sea to Libya.
What preceded this
On December 8, the Syrian opposition entered the Syrian capital, Damascus, and declared that it had overthrown the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Syrian rebels have already begun forming a transitional government — it will be headed by Muhammed al-Bashir, who headed the "Salvation Government" — a political structure created in 2017 in territories controlled by the Syrian opposition, primarily in the province of Idlib.
Meanwhile, Russia is negotiating with the new Syrian government to maintain military bases there, and is also withdrawing its military contingent from the country.
The leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group and de facto leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa (better known as Muhammad al-Julani), has said that the country is exhausted by war and poses no threat to its neighbors or the West. He is calling for the lifting of international sanctions on Syria, as they were imposed against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which has already fallen.